The UK and Europe are likely to stay in recession for some months and other developed nations face challenging economic problems that will slow down growth, according to the latest global economic forecast from a leading think tank. China and India are still forging ahead to lead world output, but their rate of growth is [...]
Hundreds of offshore pensions close as new tax laws bite
May 1, 2012
Tougher UK tax avoidance rules have closed hundreds of offshore pension schemes sheltering billions of pounds for ex pats and international workers. HM Revenue & Customs introduced the rules on April 6 – and the result is 360 qualifying recognised overseas pension schemes (QROPS) in Guernsey, the Isle of Man and New Zealand have closed [...]
Retirement shocker as 70 becomes new state pension age
November 16, 2011
The likelihood is your life expectancy will have already improved in the few minutes in takes to read this article. Better diet, health care and inflation are playing havoc with economic planning as people are living longer and benefitting from higher than planned increases in pension payments. The need for taking steps to fund retirement [...]
Austere times for Portugal
October 19, 2010
For Portugal, the question has not been so much whether austerity measures are coming, but when. With an eye watering deficit of 9.4% in 2009, Portugal’s debt laden economy has no doubt given the Portuguese government many sleepless nights as it has promised to reduce that to 7.3% for 2010. The government have predicted that [...]
Indonesia and Mauritius are touting for business
October 14, 2010
Indonesia’s Finance Minister has announced that he will be giving corporate investors a tax holiday in the hope that this will encourage extra investment. The country has set itself a target of USD 1trillion to find over the next five years, and are looking for a mixture of domestic, overseas, public and private sector money. [...]
Evasion, avoidance and mitigation: what is the difference?
October 10, 2010
Many offshore investment decisions are driven by tax, or rather the desire to pay less of it. Paying less tax can be many means, but the terminology that is employed by tax authorities includes the words evasion, avoidance and mitigation. So what is the difference, and what is allowed? A species of fraud, tax evasion [...]
Malta financial authority gives itself a clean bill of health
October 5, 2010
The Maltese Financial Services Authority (MFSA) has given itself a glowing review in its annual report. Given the global economic crisis, the MFSA was especially pleased that its financial services sector had “performed extremely well.” Malta has reinvented itself recently as an innovative player on the overseas investment scene. The MFSA granted several new licences [...]
Cheers! Fine wines are up again
October 4, 2010
A common criticism of the pre-crash economy was that people didn’t understand what they were investing in. Reports of complicated strings of deals being unravelled in financial centres all around the world did nothing for the reputation of investment banks, who had previously dazzled the markets with the complexity of their deals. Bonds and other [...]
Ethical funds are criticised
September 27, 2010
Are your investments ethical? These days this does not just involve investments that are legitimate and appropriately taxed. Instead, so called ethical investors want to make sure that their money is only being grown in ways that are environmentally and socially sustainable. Of course, there are varying degrees of sticking to these principles. Most blue [...]
3 reasons why a QNUPS can benefit you
September 24, 2010
A QNUPS can ensure that your estate gets passed to your beneficiaries in tact When the previous government put forward their pension simplification initiative in 2006, they failed to dot all of the “i”s and cross all of the “t”s. Significantly for pension savers, the government forgot to mention that certain overseas pension schemes were [...]
