Okehampton-based Moorland Fuels is warning agricultural businesses and companies across Devon and Cornwall to avoid getting caught out by the much-anticipated rise in fuel duty, which is expected to be announced in the Budget on 30th October.
The business believes that fuel duty – which has been frozen since 2011 – could rise by as much as 10p per litre. This will occur if the Chancellor announces an increase in fuel duty by 5p/litre and removes the temporary 5p/litre cut in fuel duty introduced under the Conservative Government in March 2022. Removing the 5p discount alone will...
The Budget, understandably, focussed on the coronavirus and the implications on both a health and finance basis, meaning other changes that may impact individual wealth management were not front and centre.
There were some changes to be aware of, but Gavin Jones, chartered financial planner at financial experts Old Mill,, says the key points of the budget were the changes that we didn’t see.
“With a lot of talk before the Budget of a big reduction in pension tax relief for higher earners and following the two reports about Inheritance Tax (IHT) from the Office for Tax...
More money will be spent on Devon’s roads as well as adult social care, health and children’s services, according to the county council’s proposed new budget.
The budget for 2018/19 will be discussed by the Cabinet on Friday and will then have to be ratified by the full council meeting next week (February 15).
The draft budget published before Christmas calls for an extra £13 million to be spent on adult care and health. That’s a rise of over 6 per cent and will take the total care budget to £227.8 million.
And on Tuesday the Government announced an extra £2.2...
Exeter City Councillors are being asked to back an increased budget to ensure delivery of a new Exeter Bus Station and state-of-the-art new leisure complex.
The developments, funded by Exeter City Council, are seen as crucial to the overall £115m redevelopment of this key city centre site, in partnership with the Crown Estate.
Members of the authority’s Leisure Complex and Bus Station Programme Board are being recommended to approve an uplift of £7.67m in the previously approved budget for the leisure complex and bus station.
Business owners and self-employed people are facing an increase in their tax bills following the Spring Budget, experts from leading South West law firm Stephens Scown LLP are warning. Chancellor Philip Hammond announced on Wednesday that the tax-free dividend allowance will be cut from £5,000 to £2,000 from April next year. The measure will affect many business owners, as well as investors. The Chancellor also revealed that the main rate of National Insurance contributions (NICs) for the self-employed will increase. But there was some relief for companies facing sharp increases in their...
Leading local advice charity, Citizens Advice Exeter, responds to the Budget announcement from Chancellor Philip Hammond.
Steve Barriball, Chief Executive of Citizens Advice Exeter, said: “The Chancellor has set out good intentions for helping ordinary working families - the test will be if the government delivers on boosting income security and tackling failing consumer markets.
“We’ve repeatedly called for more support for those who work for themselves so the consultation on parental benefits for self-employed people is welcome news. The government should look to go...
A leading South West based authority on taxation has added his voice to the growing call for the Chancellor of the Exchequer to review how fiscal policy is introduced and to stop meddling with the tax system with the impending Autumn Statement providing the ideal opportunity for him to do it.
John Endacott, a Council Member of CIOT (Chartered Institute of Taxation) and Head of Tax at PKF Francis Clark, says the volume of legislation that follows budget statements that are now bi-annual is out of all proportion to the value these changes bring and Chancellor Hammond should seize the...
Devon County Council’s budget is in the black for the 25th consecutive year.
The authority underspent by £35,000 in the 2015/16 financial year on a net revenue budget of £500.105 million.
County Treasurer Mary Davis will tell councillors next week: “The financial year has now ended and it is pleasing that the final position is a small underspending of £35,000.”
But Mrs Davis will warn that children’s services and adult social care continue to be subject to significant financial pressures at a time of continuing austerity.
Devon County Council’s Cabinet today (Wednesday 13 April) agreed its highway maintenance budgets for this financial year.
The Council has received £38.785 million of funding from the Department for Transport for capital maintenance of its highway network, the longest of any authority in the country at 8,000 miles. Cabinet decided how the money will be used for structural repairs that extend the life of everything that makes up the highway, including repairs to road surfaces, retaining walls, bridges, and street lighting.
In addition, Councillors also approved the spending...
Storm clouds revealed by the Budget will force taxpayers in the South West to work an extra two years without pay to balance the country’s books
Exeter accountants, Wheelers, have launched two free initiatives to prevent local taxpayers and businesses being drowned by the storm clouds identified in the small print of George Osborne’s Budget. Launching the initiatives, Wheelers Managing Director, Desmond Danes said:
“Inevitably the likes of the sugar levy, school reforms, lifetime ISAs, business rates exemptions and flood defence spending promises will grab most of the...
