Posts by Julia

Backdating National Insurance Records: A Guide to Boosting Your State Pension Before April 2025 The UK’s National Insurance system plays a critical role in determining the amount of State Pension you’ll receive upon retirement. However, many people find gaps in their National Insurance record which might reduce their pension entitlement. Here’s how you can address…

Autumn Budget 2024 After a longer than usual delay due to the July election and MP’s holidays, the chancellor Rachel Reeves has now released her Autumn 2024 Budget. This lengthy delay led to many leaks and forecasts that have largely turned out to be inaccurate and the bad news was not as bad as predicted,…

Autumn Statement 2023 The Chancellor intended this statement to be all about the cuts in National Insurance that are welcome and have been widely reported. However, rather quicker than usual, commentators moved on to the wider tax raising momentum. My blog from the Autumn statement 2022 sets out the tax increases which are again being…

Spring Budget 2023 The Chancellor’s Budget contained some important changes in particular relating to Pensions and R&D tax relief.  There were a raft of smaller changes that may be important to specific sectors. However, the key issue that eclipses all of these remains the significant increase in corporation tax confirmed in the Autumn Statement. The…

2022 Autumn Statement This budget is all about Fiscal Drag so I will start by defining this. Fiscal drag is where inflation moves taxpayers into higher tax brackets. This increases government tax revenue and promotes deflation. With the above in mind many of the most significant tax changes are those that will go unnoticed as…

2022 Spring Statement The Spring Statement was billed as a plan to strengthen the economy, help families with the cost of living and share growth fairly. Many commentators have already argued against all three objectives! The NI changes are literally giving with one hand and taking away with the other. The fact that Gordon Brown…

2021 Autumn Budget The Chancellor stood up to deliver his first Autumn Budget since his appointment in February 2020. He had to give a positive message regarding our future economic outlook against a backdrop of tax rises to try and stem the structural deficit arising after the pandemic has run its course. As usual I…

How to avoid HMRC impersonation scams During the past year, COVID-19 has left many individuals and businesses alike in a difficult position financially. As a result of this HMRC has been giving grants and support to businesses through their SEISS, mortgage holidays, a temporary halt to stamp duty, furlough and business tax relief to name…

2021 Spring Budget The Chancellor had what was accepted to be a near impossible balancing act to perform. He did so against a background of a 10% fall in GDP and record borrowing in peace time. He extended the Coronavirus relief in terms of CJRS – Furlough, SEISS, Business Rates relief and grants as anticipated.…

Award-winning Accountants It is sometimes very difficult for a business to know if the advice they are receiving is good advice. We met with a client who were very happy with their existing accountants who had even won awards for their tax advice. We, therefore, suggested that it was unlikely that we could assist but…