News and Events - Page 5

4 March 2025

National Apprenticeship Week 10-16 February 2025 This week is National Apprenticeship Week #NAW2025 and we caught up with Richard Ayre…

A Rollercoaster Start to the Year -
2025 has begun with the market’s focus flipping between different topics at a lightning pace. Firstly, government bond yields spiked higher and created alarm about budget deficits. However, lower inflation data made those fears subside and led to a strong rally...

Our online card payment function is now fully operational again.

We are at a point in time where US stocks are dominating all others, in terms of both their outright size and the strength of their returns. In 2024, the MSCI USA index gained 24.6%, almost double the 12.4% return achieved by the rest of the world (MSCI World ex-USA). However, 2025 does bring a mixed outlook for unemployment and inflation, in the US and elsewhere, therefore it will be interesting to see if investment returns can remain so strong in the coming year.

Greaves West & Ayre recently held two successful and well-attended Port Budget Rural Seminars.

In this Winter edition of our newsletter, we cover updates to Inheritance Tax and Employers NICs following the Budget in late October. We also include End of Year Tax Planning and changes to the Furnished Holiday Let Regime and Double Cab Pick-ups.

In addition, there is our usual updates on what we have supported in the local area, who's new at GWA and much more...

Our Festive Opening Hours for our Offices are detailed below -

Attention! An important change in legislation will be taking affect in April 2026 which will affect payroll processes.

As you may be aware, in February 2024 HMRC proposed a change in relation to the tax treatment of double cab pick-ups for both capital allowances and benefit in kind (BIK) purposes. They then quickly changed their mind around a week later and decided not to implement the changes. However, following the most recent Budget the Government have again decided these changes should be put in place.

The favourable tax regime for Furnished Holiday Lettings (FHLs) was first introduced in 1984. Forty years later, in the Spring 2024 Budget the then Chancellor of the Exchequer, Jeremy Hunt announced its abolition from 6 April 2025.

The biggest revenue raiser in the Budget was the changes to NICs. The increase in Employers’ NICs (increasing from 13.8% to 15% from April 2025) grabbed many of the headlines. What has been largely overlooked is the reduction in “Secondary Threshold” from £9,100 to £5,000. Allied to the increase in the National Living Wage, the changes will particularly affect those in the care, retail, hospitality and cleaning/maintenance sectors.