Next week sees the start of the new tax year 2019 – 2020, so we have summarised the key personal tax changes that will come into effect.

Personal Allowance:  this goes up from £11,850 to £12,500.  For most people, this will give a reduction in tax of about £130 per year.

Higher rate income tax threshold (the 40% tax rate) increases from £46,350 to £50,000.

Income tax rates are as follows:  Basic, 20% rate is income up to £37,500; Higher, 40% rate is £37,501 to £150,000; and the Additional, 45% rate, is all income over £150,000

Other allowances are increasing as well, as follows:  the married / civil partners allowance goes up to £8,915; the minimum married/civil partners allowance is now £3,450; the married/civil partners transferable allowance is £1,250; the income limit for married/civil partners allowance becomes £29,600; and the blind persons allowance is £2,450.

Inheritance Tax changes are limited to the Residence nil-rate band, which goes up to £150,000.

Student Loans:  the Plan 1 threshold increases to £18,935, Plan 2 goes up to £25,725.  The 9% rate of reduction stays the same.

ISAs: there is a small adjustment to the annual Child Trust Fund and Junior ISA savings limit, up to £4,260.

Workplace Pensions: The minimum contributions into the auto-enrolment workplace pension increases, with the total amount from both employer and employee must be a minimum of 8% of the qualifying earnings.

Capital Gains Tax (CGT) annual exempt amount increases to £12,000.

Non resident CGT:  non UK residents will be brought into the CGT scheme for the first time if they dispose of UK land and property.

Property Tax:  the gradual removal of interest relief for buy to let mortgages continues, down to 25% with a complete removal scheduled for 2020.

Company Cars:  the benefit in kind tax rates are increasing for company cars, dependent on whether the car is petrol or diesel, and also dependent on CO2 emissions.  For full information go here.

If you need any further help, please don’t hesitate to contact us here.

The internet is 30 years old – and it’s probably never been more dangerous, with almost daily warnings of various scams, hacks and hoaxes.  Ensuring you are safe online has never been more difficult – so as we bite into a slice of birthday cake, here are our top tips to help you stay safe online, without the need for specialist technical knowledge:

To Click – or not to Click

That, to paraphrase Shakespeare, is the question!  It is likely that any site asking for personal information via a link will be dodgy.  Phishing is where you are promised something in return for giving them your personal data.  What are are most likely to receive in return are lots of irritating emails and possibly even an infected computer.

If it looks too good to be true…

You know how this ends.  If you are being offered something for free, you need to ask yourself how they are able to afford to give it away.  You will pay for the freebie somehow, somewhere.

‘Your computer is infected’…

Actually, of course, it probably isn’t, and how would they know anyway?  These tech support scams may involve very expensive phone calls to their ‘help’ desk, or downloading potentially dangerous software which can infect or control your computer.  Rather, use antivirus or anti-malware software which you control.

‘System optimizers’

These rarely actually optimize anything, but are more likely to try and control your options so you end up with unnecessary toolbars, annoying pop-up ads, or be diverted to landing pages you don’t want to go to.

Use a trusted browser

You’ll be safer with a well known browser such as Chrome, Safari or Firefox rather than a less well known one.  Stay with browsers which are regularly updated rather than older ones which don’t cope well with new versions of malware.

HTTPS

Websites with a green padlock and an HTTPS address are safer because this means the information is encrypted.  Of course nothing is 100% guaranteed safe…

Password Manager

Who still uses ‘password’ as their password?  Asking for suggestions for passwords online often generates a complex string of characters, numbers and symbols, which can be very difficult to write down by hand accurately.  What is the difference between l and I (the first is lower case L, the second is upper case i).  Password manager software from a reputable source may be the answer.

Of course there are many other more complex solutions, but for the non-technical person, starting here may be the best bet.