#tax-relief

#tax-relief

Small businesses such as cafes, shops and hairdressers are facing three years of business rates misery with an average 52 per cent hike in bills being piled on in three instalments, new analysis from the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) has revealed. The controversial slashing of relief for 230,000 small firms across the retail, hospitality and leisure (RHL) sectors in England, combined with other business rates changes being introduced by the Government from this April, leaves many having to pay thousands of pounds extra.

The government urgently needs to reconsider these changes. Our analysis shows that start-up and scale-up businesses could face a funding shortfall of well over £500 million, as a direct result of changes to VCT tax relief announced in the Budget. If the aim, as was claimed in the Budget, is to make Britain the best place to start and scale a business, this misguided policy risks achieving the opposite.

Home sales dropped 11.2 per cent in the Greater Toronto Area last year compared to 2024, according to a new report released Wednesday. "Economic uncertainty weighed on consumer confidence" in 2025, the Toronto Regional Real Estate Board (TRREB) said in its December Market Watch report. "Over the same period, listing inventory remained elevated, allowing for selling prices to be negotiated downward, helping improve affordability," the report says.

At the moment the chancellor gives away more than 50bn in tax relief for pension saving, most of which goes to wealthier boomers and better-paid gen Xers who do not need the money and would save anyway if state support was more limited. A remodelling of pension subsidies cutting the 40p higher rate to a flat rate of 25p for all savers could claw back 10bn to 20bn in extra income tax and national insurance payments, depending on how the new regime is constructed.

The reduction in inheritance tax relief for agricultural land and assets could have a devastating impact on thousands of family farms, said Aloysia Daros, S&W Head of Landed Estates and Rural Businesses.

Residents of high-tax states suffered the most with the previous cap on state and local taxes (SALT), because their taxes far exceeded the cap, they were not able to deduct the full amount like residents in low-tax states.

The provision establishes tax deductions and tax-free reimbursements for eligible moving expenses for IC employees and certain political appointees, a measure aimed at preventing them from being unfairly taxed on money they spend to cover mandatory moving costs.

To lower the cost of defence and transport spending, the UK Government is considering reducing tax reliefs, particularly on pensions and inheritance tax, as suggested by tax experts.