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According to the Office for National Statistics, the median age of the UK population increased from 30.96 years old in 2011 to 40.7 years old in 2021.

This gradual ageing of the population, combined with shifting work patterns brought about by COVID-19, has led to a rise in research on attitudes towards retirement.

The latest report to investigate such attitudes is Standard Life’s Retirement Voice 2023.

One of the topics it covers is the benefit of planning ahead for retirement – but what do people in the UK think about retirement planning, and when is the best time to start?

In welcome news for young workers and apprentices, minimum wage rates will increase substantially from 1st April 2024. However, this may put more pressure on employers who are already struggling in a difficult economic climate, as even small employers must pay the appropriate minimum wage.

Almost all workers in the UK are entitled to a minimum hourly pay rate known as the National Minimum Wage. The National Living Wage is a higher minimum pay rate currently available for workers over 23 years old, but this age limit will be reduced to 21 years old in the coming April.

The current default accounting method for businesses in the UK is accruals basis accounting, which involves noting transactions as they happen instead of upon payment of invoices. If a qualifying business wanted to use cash basis accounting to record transactions when payments are completed, they would have to opt in.
However, following the Autumn Statement in November 2023, the government will make cash basis accounting the default instead. This means cash basis will be the standard method of calculating trading profit for self-employed traders and partners with trading income, taking effect from the start of the 2024–2025 tax year.
Businesses will now have to use the cash basis scheme and opt out if they want to use the accruals basis scheme instead. This should make it simpler for most businesses to complete tax returns reporting their income to HMRC.

While Research and Development (R&D) tax relief was introduced to encourage UK companies to make innovative investments that could boost the economy, the government is reforming this system due to concerns over fraudulent tax relief claims.
In addition to switching to online or digital submissions only and requiring more information for R&D tax relief applications from April 2023, the government announced in the November 2023 Autumn Statement that the Research and Development Expenditure Credit (RDEC) scheme and the small or medium enterprise (SME) R&D relief scheme would be merging into one from April 2024.
These two schemes will merge into a new scheme that is similar to the RDEC scheme currently used by large companies, which will eliminate the complexity of moving between schemes. This is designed to simplify the system and make it easier to ensure that companies can claim the right R&D relief they are entitled to more efficiently.

Back in November, Chancellor Jeremy Hunt announced several changes to National Insurance Contributions (NICs) for 2024 in the Autumn Statement 2023.
Not only is the rate of Class 1 contributions paid by employees decreasing by 2% in January, but NICs will also be simplified for self-employed earners later in the year.
NICs are taken from employee salaries or via self-assessment for the self-employed, as a kind of tax that entitles the contributor to state benefits – including support and allowances for employment, maternity, bereavement, and retirement.
Self-employed earners currently pay two NIC classes, so the reforms coming in the new tax year should be welcome news – but do they offset frozen tax thresholds?
Here’s a summary of what’s changing in 2024 for the self-employed and how these NIC reforms could affect you as a self-employed worker.

Previously, HMRC set a deadline of September 2022 for certain trusts to register with the Trust Registration Service (TRS) as an anti-laundering measure against tax fraud – resulting in a significant increase in registrations.

Despite the surge in TRS registrations in 2022 and beyond, the number of trusts filing self-assessment tax returns is declining. The figures dropped by 3% by the end of the 2021–2022 tax year compared to the previous year, with a reduction of 37% between 2003–2004 and 2021–2022.

This decline in the number of trusts submitting self-assessment returns is unsurprising, considering the advantages of using a trust have been eroding as regulations have become stricter – so why might trusts still be beneficial in some cases?