Personal Finance
No ‘reasonable excuse’ for this waste of public funds
A recent Tribunal case will reinforce the view of many people that HMRC are continuing to take an unfairly hard line with compliant taxpayers. The cost and time and effort involved in this case (TC00425: Adrian Waddington) are wholly disproportionate to the 5% surcharge in dispute (£219.52). And, as the Tribunal determined, the taxpayer had [...]
Continue reading...FRB Issues Final Rules on Gift Cards
5 April 2010 – 6:43 am PDT
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Source: Federal Reserve Board Release Date: March 23, 2010 The Federal Reserve Board on Tuesday announced final rules to restrict the fees and expiration dates that may apply to gift cards. The rules protect consumers from certain unexpected costs and require that gift card terms and conditions be clearly stated. The final rules prohibit dormancy, [...]
Continue reading...OTS on What to Expect When You Apply for a Mortgage Loan
5 April 2010 – 6:37 am PDT
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Source: Office of Thrift Supervision Washington, D.C. — The Office of Thrift Supervision (OTS) issued information today in support of Financial Literacy Month to educate consumers about a new mortgage process required by the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act and about the impact of a consumer’s credit score on the interest rate of a mortgage [...]
Continue reading...FTC Institutes Fee Credit Report Rule
5 April 2010 – 6:31 am PDT
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Source: Federal Trade Commission For Your Information: 04/01/2010 Amended Free Credit Reports Rule Helps Consumers Avoid ‘Free’ Offers That Cost Money Starting tomorrow, a new Federal Trade Commission rule will help consumers avoid confusing ads for “free credit reports†– which often require them to buy credit monitoring or other services – with the federally [...]
Continue reading...Using Health Savings Accounts to Save for Retirement
5 April 2010 – 6:26 am PDT
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Source: Employee Benefit Research Institute ‘The Use of Health Savings Accounts for Health Care in Retirement,’ and ‘Tax Expenditures and Employee Benefits: Estimates from the FY 2011 Budget’ April 2010, Vol. 31, No. 4 Paperback, 12 pp. PDF, 371 kb Employee Benefit Research Institute, 2010 Download Notes PDF This research shows that while HSAs can [...]
Continue reading...No ‘reasonable excuse’ for this waste of pubic funds
5 April 2010 – 3:40 am PDT
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A recent Tribunal case will reinforce the view of many people that HMRC are continuing to take an unfairly hard line with compliant taxpayers. The cost and time and effort involved in this case (TC00425: Adrian Waddington) are wholly disproportionate to the 5% surcharge in dispute (£219.52). And, as the Tribunal determined, the taxpayer had [...]
Continue reading...Finance Bill 2010 proves Parliament doesn’t decide our tax laws
2 April 2010 – 3:50 am PDT
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Publishing the Finance Bill 2010 on 1 April was always going to look like a bad joke. Even more so if Parliament is about to be dissolved for a General Election. Commentators, eg: the ICAEW Tax Faculty and CIOT, are rightly critical of how little time will be available to debate the Bill before it [...]
Continue reading...Tax related April fool stories 2010
2 April 2010 – 1:30 am PDT
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I wasn’t the only one.Yesterday I posted: New HMRC penalties for anyone responding to scam emails. I’ve added a note below of some of the best responses I received. My apologies to anyone who was ‘fooled’ despite my best effort that it simply raise a smile and flag the importance of avoiding scam emails. Taxation [...]
Continue reading...New HMRC penalties for anyone responding to scam emails
1 April 2010 – 2:00 am PDT
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Regular readers will know that I always try to share insights into topical tax related news stories. Today, I need to share with you details of a secret (until now) plan that HMRC been working on. It is a rather sneaky way to secure tax geared penalties from taxpayers and agents (ie: accountants and tax [...]
Continue reading...Are TIPS a Good Hedge Against Inflation
29 March 2010 – 12:50 pm PDT
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Source: FRB of Boston TIPS Scorecard: Are TIPS Accomplishing What They Were Supposed to Accomplish? Can They Be Improved? Public Policy Discussion Paper No. 09-8 by Michelle L. Barnes, Zvi Bodie, Robert K. Triest, and J. Christina Wang In September 1997, the U.S. Treasury developed the TIPS market in order to achieve three important policy [...]
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5 April 2010 – 10:15 am PDT
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