Tax gets digital

Making Tax Digital (MTD) is a bold plan by HMRC which aims to get small businesses and the self-employed to complete their tax records and returns entirely online. Whereas the first phase of the MTD legislation saw only businesses with a taxable turnover of over...

Investing in wartime

Stocks these days are much like the weather – only much harder to forecast. For one hour of a trading day, you might be tempted to sit back and relax in the sun. But the next hour, you’ll wish you left home with an umbrella as stocks start plunging. Much of that...

House prices continue to surge

The UK house market shows no signs of cooling down with prices rising at their fastest rate since 2007, according to the Halifax’s latest House Price Index. Year-on-year prices grew by 10.8%, representing the fastest pace of annual growth in a decade-and-a-half and...

Ukraine and Financial Market Volatility

London’s blue-chip stocks endured their worst week since the start of the first lockdown last week as some investors pulled their money out of equities amid the continuing economic chaos caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The FTSE 100, home to Britain’s biggest...

Crypto firms under the regulatory spotlight

The statement was issued by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), which as previously reported has developed and slowly built out a registry of crypto firms under its auspices. That registry has been notably slow to add new firms, creating potential headaches for...

Banks pull mortgage deals

Nervous lenders have pulled more than 500 mortgages from the market in the past month, pushing up prices and leaving borrowers with increasingly expensive loans just as they face rampant inflation, rising taxes and higher energy bills. The number of deals borrowers...

Bank of England mulls ending post credit crunch rules

Tough rules brought in during 2014 to restrict the amount mortgage applicants could borrow may be reversed following a review by the Bank of England. After the credit crunch and global financial crash in 2007 and 2008, precipitated by mortgage lenders approving...

Households feel the inflation squeeze

UK household incomes are on course to collapse by the most since the mid-1970s after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine sent energy prices soaring to new highs, a thinktank has said. The Resolution Foundation said the dramatic increase in global oil and gas prices was...