For many contractors, 31st March is also the end of company tax year, which coincides nicely with the end of the financial tax year on 5th April 2012. Making decisions prior to these dates gives you the potential to save significant amounts of company tax and personal tax.  We have included in this article a summary of the main tax saving opportunities for contractors and freelancers.

The end of the tax year is approaching (5th April 2012) but there is still time to fill your ISA allowance(s), as well as your Personal Pension allowance for the 2011/12 tax year.  It's also not too early to be thinking about your 2012/13 allowances. See below for some top tips as to how you can save tax.

The Government have finalised the starting dates for NEST pensions, the national pension scheme being rolled out over the next few years.

A massively volatile market, with tremendous daily movements, leaves even the professionals treading very carefully.

With borrowing at historically high levels it is important for families to consider the way their debt is protected, should the worst happen.

Remember, just like a free lunch, in investment there is no such thing as “a sure thing”. Here we look at investment fundamentals in precarious markets.

Can pound-cost averaging help you smooth out your investment decisions?

Income protection policyholders and their insurers both benefit if recovery from illness or injury is assisted by physiotherapy or other appropriate intervention.

Some investors only feel comfortable with a responsible and ethical approach to investment, even though this may narrow their investment options.

Can close family relationships be critically damaged by inter-family lending and what protection should both parties take to protect their interests?

When did you last discuss how your employee benefits package addresses and supports your overall business strategy and goals?

Due to financial constraints imposed on the country by the credit crunch and recession, Child Trust Funds (CTFs) are no longer available for children born after 2nd January 2011.

According to Money Management magazine (quoted in The Sunday Times 3/7/11) deferring the state pension by five years would increase annual income from £5,311 to £8,072.

One of the recommendations made to the government by Lord Hutton was that public sector pension schemes should be altered from ‘final salary’ to career average. But what does this mean?

Wealth Matters have been running a number of Contractor Seminars this year. When it comes to investing, quite a few questions have kept repeating themselves among the 250 strong contractors in the audience. In the following article, we shall try and answer these questions to a wider contractor audience.

A number of Freelancers have questioned how the National Employment Savings Trust (NEST) will affect them. From October 2012 the UK Government will introduce a new pension scheme to the UK as part of a bigger overall pensions reform strategy. Previously known as “personal accounts" NEST was announced on 7 January 2010.

As financial planners that specialise in working with contractors, one of the most frequent questions we get asked about, is the best way to save for the long term. This was very clearly illustrated at one of the finance seminars we ran last year in London.

July sees the Royal Assent of the new pension rules announced in the March 2011 budget. This means that from that date, no last minute changes can be made to the legislation...