On The Spot Blogs

The summer, as for the Ashes tour, started badly with a summer Budget bringing a new unexpected dividend tax charge from next April which will badly affect all owner managed companies. How can you negotiate this massive change, and, like England, get some wins later on?

Among the rallies did the Chancellor win out overall? On the basis this looks like a revenue raising budget, yes he did, but did you? If we're looking for aces and deuces, there may be a few.

Public opinion has played a strong role in the Chancellor's statement today and perhaps his announcements made at the Commons film set today can be summarised into the Good, the Bad and the Ugly.

The Good - Property Owners, Savers

At last the stamp duty system has been modernised, so it doesn't distort the property market with a more logical % being charged in each band rather than on the whole property price.

Here are the main questions we ask our clients before making a recommendation:

1. ARE YOU MAKING TAX LOSSES?

Yes - If you are a Sole Trader in your first 4 tax years of trading you can offset these losses against other taxable income from the previous 3 tax years.