The National Audit Office (NAO) has published a report on HMRC customer service which isn’t a happy story. Source: HMRC historic data, Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) estimates A common tactic for grabbing a headline, be it a politician or organisation, is to take a relatively modest number and then multiply it by the large population to whom it applies. The National Audit Office (NAO), the UK’s independent public spending watchdog, adopted this approach for a press re

A useful new web tool has emerged, a little late in the game, in a joint effort from two government departments. In early 2023, HMRC and the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) found they were unable to cope with the volume generated by a 5 April cut-off date that had been set a decade previously. The deadline related to the option to pay backdated National Insurance contributions (NICs) to fill in gaps in contribution records going back to 2006/7, rather than the standard

As we count down to the general election in July, be wary of those manifesto promises not to raise tax rates. The Conservatives and the Labour party are going into the next election with the same key fiscal rule. This states that in five years’ time, total government debt (currently about £2,700 billion) should be falling as a percentage of gross domestic product (GDP), which is broadly how much the UK produces in a year. It is a rolling five-year target, which means the test

In mid-May 2024, the Dow Jones Index crossed the 40,000 threshold for the first time. Source: Investing.com You might have noted headlines in May that the Dow Jones Index of US shares had broken through the 40,000 mark for the first time. It may have sounded like a significant landmark, but for professional investors, it was little more than a passing curiosity. Their indifference reflects the fact that, despite its widespread media use, the Dow is not an index they follow. N

Gold (Au on the periodic table) is having its day in the sun, but for how long? Source: Investing.com Long before Bitcoin was even a twinkle in the eye of its alleged inventor, Satoshi Nakamoto, there was gold. If you did not trust rulers, institutions or paper money, gold was what you owned to protect your finances. Its value/weight ratio made it ideal as way of keeping your wealth nearby should you need to flee the kingdom at short notice. Today there are still a few who be

The fees for obtaining probate in England and Wales have increased. The fee charged to obtain probate in England and Wales has been increased from £273 to £300 (10%) and for confirmation in Scotland, which has a sliding scale by 2%. Northern Ireland revised its probate fees in November 2023. Whether the higher fees will make any difference to the level of service is a moot point. In England, the current guidance from HM Courts and Tribunals Service (HMCTS) is that no queries