There is increasingly feverish speculation regarding the public finances and it was not good news for the Chancellor Rachel Reeves last week, as borrowing is rocketing.
Reuters reports that Britain's borrowing has shot past the official forecasts underpinning the Government's tax and spending plans and as the news agency says this compounds the already big challenge facing Rachel Reeves in her November budget.
Public sector borrowing totalled £83.8 billion pounds between April and August, £11.4 billion more than projected by the Office for Budget Responsibility, official data published on Friday showed.
Earlier in the week Citywire’s star columnist Richard Buxton had asked whether it is time for the government to bite the bullet and put up income taxes.
It would be interesting to hear the views of advisers on this. It might be better than all the expected fiddling with reliefs and allowances.
The Bank of England doesn’t add to the cheer by maintaining interest rates at 4% as the BBC reports.
Recent data released by HMRC shows that Inheritance Tax (IHT) receipts for the period April to August 2025 reached £3.7 billion. This represents a £0.2 billion increase compared to the same period in 2024 – a rise of 5.7% as IFA Magazine reports.
Nucleus has launched a new CPD learning zone for advisers and paraplanners across all of its propositions, as Money Marketing reports.
The hub provides Chartered Insurance Institute (CII)-certified learning materials, giving users on-demand access to refresh planning knowledge, explore technical topics and keep pace with regulatory change at their convenience.
Money Marketing also reports on what M&G says advisers are asking about in terms of pensions and IHT and it provides some answers.
It asks questions such as “Do gifts have to be monthly to qualify under the normal expenditure exemption?"
A useful article.
