tax

Providers of venture capital trusts are scratching their collective heads after Tory shadow chief secretary to the Treasury Howard Flight said the sector would be scrapped by the Labour government within the next couple of years.

Since the story broke earlier this week of a potential change in the VAT treatment of networks and Appointed Representatives, there has been a lot of confusion as to what the issues really are, who the VAT is being imposed on, and why.

Appointed Representatives of IFA networks may soon be required to pay Value Added Tax on services delivered by their network principles, following a Customs & Excise ruling which suggests network firms are not exempt from payment.

The Investment Management Association has produced a simple fact sheet for consumers explaining what they need to tell their taxman about their unit trust investments.

COMPENSATION COSTS to employees who lost their retirement funds in failed company pensions could be much lower than expected, according to comments from the Association of Corporate Trustees in this morning's Daily Telegraph.

The new rules on deferral of capital gains on investments in VCTs and EISs mean the latter will be the better tool for those looking to defer tax liabilities, according to analysis of the Budget by Downing Corporate Finance.

Tax rule changes, if announced in today's Budget to broaden the appeal of VCTs, would help the industry on the path to launching a new round of products for a wider range of clients says John Spooner, founder of VCT provider Quester

The Inland Revenue has closed the deficiency relief tax avoidance loophole, which had allowed higher rate taxpayers to offset the losses of life insurance policies against any higher rate income tax.

Information gleaned from surveys of British taxpayers have found that while most complain about levels of tax paid, they are unable to correctly identify which sorts of taxes hit the hardest, and still do not take full advantage of tax breaks.