MJB Partnership

The chancellor has announced a temporary holiday on Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT) on the first £500,000 of all property sales in England and Northern Ireland.

The tax threshold has been temporarily raised until March 2021 to boost the property market and help buyers struggling because of the coronavirus crisis.

The changes came into effect from 8 July 2020.

Residential Rates on purchases from 8 July 2020 to 31 March 2021

If you purchase a residential property between 8 July 2020 to 31 March 2021, you only start to pay SDLT on the amount that you pay for the property above £500,000. These rates apply whether you are buying your first home or have owned property before.

You can use the table to work out the SDLT due:

From 8 July 2020 to 31 March 2021 the special rules for first time buyers are replaced by the reduced rates set out above.

Higher rates for additional properties

The 3% higher rate for purchases of additional dwellings applies on top of revised standard rates above for the period 8 July 2020 to 31 March 2021.

The following rates apply:

Firstly, we hope that you have managed to stay safe and well and are coping through these strange and unprecedented times.  MJB staff are fit and well at the moment and those that were only working from home are now making an appearance at the office on a limited basis, while still implementing the 2 metre rule.

We have made the decision not to have face-to-face appointments with clients in the office yet.  However, if it is imperative that you meet with an Adviser, there may be the possibility of having a discussion in your garden, while still adhering to social distancing measures.  This, however, remains completely at the discretion of each Adviser and if you can endeavour to correspond by phone, email or video call, this is still preferable.

We been very busy throughout this time. Please don’t hesitate to contact us if you have any queries.

Best wishes,

All the MJB Staff

In light of the government announcement made yesterday (23 March), we have made the decision to stop all appointments with clients in the office.

Advisers will no longer be able to visit your home.  All corresponding will need to be carried out by email, telephone or via the post.

As our company is defined as ‘essential financial services’, one or two members of staff may be present in the office during some of our normal opening hours.

If you are dropping documents off at the office please use the letter box and do not enter reception, for your protection and ours.

The member of staff on duty will be able to contact your adviser, who will be working from home until further notice.  The best method for clients to contact us is via email.  If you do not have your adviser’s email address please use office@mjbpartnership.co.uk which will be regularly monitored.

We will endeavour to keep you informed by updating our site with any further developments.

Best wishes to you all. Try and stay safe and well,

All the staff at MJB

Further to our update on the 13^th March, we have made the decision not to hold normal face-to-face appointments in the office.

We are, however, still open and staff that are NOT in a ‘high risk category’ are still intending to come to work unless Government restrictions prevent us from doing so.

Your adviser may be able to visit you at your own home, but that will be at your adviser’s discretion.

As things stand at the moment, if you are unable to receive documents via email, print, sign and return them by post, then you can pop into the office briefly for this purpose.

However, if at all possible, contact via phone, email or face-time is preferred for everyone’s benefit.

We are implementing a strict hand washing policy before entering the premises for your/our protection.

Best wishes to you,

All the staff at MJB

• Budget Day started with an announcement by the Bank of England that the base interest rate will reduce from 0.75% to 0.25%.
• Income Tax allowances and thresholds remain unchanged.
• The ISA allowance remains at £20,000 but the Junior ISA contribution limit rises to £9,000.
• Pension Annual Allowance remains at £40,000 but tapering does not begin until threshold incomes are above £200,000.
• The National Insurance primary threshold limit rises to £9,500.
• The CGT annual exemption rises to £12,300.
• There is a reduction in the allowance for entrepreneur’s relief from £10 million to £1 million.
• Fuel duty and duty on alcoholic drinks has been frozen.
• Changes to sick pay were introduced designed to help those with Coronavirus (COVID-19) or symptoms that keep them off work.
• Business Rates have been removed for the next financial year for the majority of small businesses.

For further details please click on the following link to: Technical Connections Budget Analysis – Spring 2020

The office is currently running as normal with no changes to opening hours.  However, we have the ability to work remotely as part of our client records are ‘cloud based’.  If necessary, or if you would prefer, we can conduct reviews with you on a non-face-to-face basis.

We are sure that most people are aware that Coronavirus fears have caused a fairly large fall in the global stock markets.  This will have affected most investment and pension funds.

Previous falls of this scale have usually been followed by market recoveries and we hope that we will see a similar outcome on this occasion.  It usually pays for investors to hold their nerve, wait for longer term returns and not partake in panic selling.

Please note, this is not a recommendation and does not constitute financial advice.
The value of investments may fall as well as rise and you may not get back the amount invested.

This edition focuses on an early start to year end tax planning, a strong growth in dividend income and changes to company car tax, amongst other things….

Client Newsletter – November 2019

This edition discusses the tendency of persons of State Pension Age to continue to work, the emergence of the Chinese economy and the various tax allowances available to UK tax payers….

Client Newsletter – June 2019

Read details of the individual tax rates for the year 2019/20.

(more…)

• Pension Tax relief is unchanged following this budget.
• The Pension Annual Allowance is unaffected and will remain at £40,000.
• The main ISA and Lifetime ISA allowances are unaffected, however the Junior ISA allowance will increase from £4,260 to £4,368 in April 2019.
• Personal tax allowance threshold to be increased from £11,850 to £12,500 from April 2019 with an increase from £46,350 to £50,000 for the higher rate tax threshold.
• Capital Gains Tax annual exemption is to increase from £11,700 to £12,000 in April 2019.
• The ‘end of austerity‘ – The forecast for UK growth has been downgraded to 1.3% in 2018 and raised to 1.6% in 2019.
• Fuel duty and Beer duty will be frozen, however, the cost of cigarettes and wine will increase.
• £500 million extra funds will be put towards Brexit, with the possibility of a full Budget next Spring.
• The NHS will receive £20 billion extra funding over the next five years, with £2 billion allocated to mental health.
• Business rates relief for small businesses to the sum of £900 million.
• Schools to receive extra £400 million to buy “the little extras they need”.