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The Sunday Times concedes that nobody likes a tax avoider, but notes that there are 80 breaks available for income tax and more than 35 for inheritance tax. Nimesh Shah of tax consultancy Blick Rothenburg explains how Britain’s wealthiest individuals use many of them to plan their finances and asks can their schemes help less-than-stellar earners save money too?
The paper also warns about the nine-month capital gains trap, warning that people who are relocating or stuck in a chain when moving house could be caught out by changes to CGT coming into effect in April.
The Sunday Telegraph reports savers’ fury about scam financial ads; Google is earning tens of millions of pounds every year by allowing unregulated and fraudulent investment schemes to advertise on its search engine to unwitting savers.
But the internet giant, now worth more than $1 trillion (£760bn), holds on to the cash even when it discovers that advertisers are misleading or potentially defrauding investors.
They also explore the anomaly whereby customers have flocked back to the “Big Six” energy firms despite their lacklustre performance on customer service.
A record 6.4 million households switched supplier last year, up from 5.8 million in 2018 – with around 900,000 people moving from a small to a large supplier.
But, in addition to often being more costly, the six biggest firms also rate in the bottom third of suppliers in a customer satisfaction survey published yesterday by consumer group Which?.
The Mail on Sunday reveals that the billionaire helping to bankroll Extinction Rebellion became the world’s top hedge fund manager last year thanks to major investments in firms hit by environmental scandals.
Sir Chris Hohn, who has donated £200,000 to the controversial climate change pressure group and is feared in City boardrooms for putting pressure on companies, saw his investment firm join the ranks of the world’s largest hedge funds last year after a stunning performance.
They also tell us that economists think there will be a nearly equal split in the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee, with half of the members voting to take the base rate down from 0.75 per cent to 0.5 per cent.
Reassuringly for Neil Woodford, he doesn’t seem to get a mention.
A Monday memo “Be nice to your children. After all, they are going to choose your nursing home.” (Steven Wright)
