Taxes, as we know, are one of the two great inevitables in life. As the UK tax system continues to grow ever more complex, and with more responsibility being placed on the individual to get their own tax right, ensuring that you receive the best professional advice to optimise your tax position is paramount.
On page 10, we consider how appropriate tax planning could help you substantially reduce tax liabilities and defer tax payments. We have provided details of a number of tax planning areas you may wish to review, especially as we are now in the run-up to the 2015/16 financial year end on 5 April. Pensions have been transformed by the arrival of freedom reforms on 6 April 2015 which now give far greater flexibility over what you can do with your pension pot. The new freedoms mean you can enjoy far greater choice on how you spend and generate an income from your pensions, but with further changes on the horizon we look at some of the key changes you need to know on page 06.
The Chinese New Year, also known as ‘Spring Festival’ in China, is China’s most important traditional festival. The 2016 Chinese New Year, ‘The Year of the Monkey’, commenced on Monday 8 February. Monkeys in the Chinese zodiac are ‘clever, mischievous and curious’, so we’ll have to see if this brings about a luckier year for Chinese financial markets. Certainly fund managers investing in China are proving sanguine. The Association of Investment Companies (AIC) has collated views from investment company managers on China, and one consistent theme is that the spectacular growth story of the past should not cloud judgement on the China that we see today. Read the full article on page 04