Farsight Financial Planning

From April this year, the notional 10% tax credit on dividends is to be abolished and will be replaced by a new tax-free Dividend Allowance. The Dividend Allowance means that you won’t have to pay tax on the first £5,000 of your dividend income, no matter what non-dividend income you have.   read more …

Owning and running your own business can be one of the most rewarding things in life and when things go well there can be nothing better. When things go wrong you will usually face up to the challenge and overcome it. But let me start by asking a quick question. Of the following which event would have the greatest impact on your business? A company car gets stolen 2. Your premises are vandalised   read more …

The new Pensioner Bonds have been available for a few weeks now and, as predicted, they proved extremely popular on launch. The attractive terms for the Bonds which were announced in the 2014 Budget have been confirmed and the products have been flying off the shelves. In last March's Budget George Osborne said that in January 2015 National Savings & Investments (NS&I) would be launching new Pensioner Bonds   read more …

Pension Wise will be available face-to-face, over the telephone and online. The telephone service will be provided by The Pensions Advisory Service and the face-to-face service by the Citizens’ Advice Bureau at selected locations around the country. Pension Wise is available to anyone, but is targeted at those aged 55 and over who want to make a decision around how to take their pension benefits.   read more …

With the start of 2015 we will see a huge increase in the number of companies who need to start the process of Automatic Enrolment (AE) for pensions. As we move through 2015 and into 2016 many small, micro and “nano” employers will become affected by the legislation. Many people ask me whether one or more directors need to be considered as “workers” and as such are they subject to AE legislation One-   read more …

There has been a great deal of coverage across all media formats about ‘pension liberation’ schemes; we have covered them before in blogs and articles and recently there was the Dispatches investigation on Channel 4. Now the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has issued guidance about pension release schemes, how they work and why accessing your pension fund before 55 is very unlikely to be in your long-   read more …

Recent studies suggest almost 67% of adults have no will in place to decide what happens to their estate should they die. Such people are ‘intestate’ and if that is you the rules governing how your estate will be dealt with on your death have changed.

The Inheritance and Trustees’ Powers Act (2014) came into effect in England and Wales on October 1st 2014. In summary, the main changes you need to be aware of are   read more …

Historically the biggest contributors to the Government's income have been the taxes on tobacco and alcohol, but all that is about to change. The Treasury estimates that by the end of 2016 the tax collected from homeowners and savers will exceed those collected from 'booze and cigs'!

The end of the 2015/16 financial year will see inheritance tax (IHT), stamp duty land tax   read more …

Three recently retired men were talking about what their grandchildren would be saying about them fifty years from now. 'I would like my grandchildren to say, 'He was successful in business’, declared the first man. 'Fifty years from now, 'said the second, 'I want them to say, 'He was a loyal family man'. Turning to the third, the first gent asked, 'So what do you want them to say about you in fifty years?   read more …