Business

Quite aside from the moral aspect, hiding income, capital gains or valuable assets from the taxman isn’t easy. And it’s only getting harder. HM Revenue and Customs has wide-ranging powers and can delve deeper into your affairs than you can imagine. It has one thing you don’t have. A supercomputer. It’s called HMRC Connect and it can track down a staggering amount of information on almost every taxpayer. As chartered accountancy firm THP has noted: “It takes Big Brother surveillance to a completely new level.” HMRC Connect now holds 55billion items of data on taxpayers, and it’s growing all the time. It’s getting cleverer, too, as it will increasingly incorporate machine learning artificial intelligence (AI) technology into its systems. Connect will c...

Madison Stimmel of Charlotte, North Carolina, went viral on TikTok after celebrating her 30th birthday at Costco, which is her favorite store. A North Carolina woman apparently loves Costco so much that she chose to celebrate her birthday at a wholesale location. “My family and I love Costco and have been members for years,” Madison Stimmel said in a statement to FOX Business. “I really didn’t want to do anything ‘big or fancy’ for my birthday this year and Costco just popped into my head,” she added. VIRAL GLASS STORAGE CONTAINERS SOLD AT COSTCO SPARK MIXED REVIEWS AS ITEM REPORTEDLY FLIES OFF SHELVES Stimmel celebrated her birthday alongside six of her family members and everyone wore matching Costco sweatshirts — as seen in a now-viral TikTok video....

Britons can slash energy bills “more” using comparison site Uswitch’s Demand Flexibility scheme, and also secure an additional payment if eligible. New Uswitch customers can get a £10 bonus through the app by joining in one session of ‘Utrack Money Back’, which pays energy customers for reducing their electricity use during certain peak hours. Utrack Money Back, which pays users around £3 for every kilowatt hour (kWh) saved, is part of the National Grid ESO Demand Flexibility Service running until the end of March 2024. The scheme rewards households who reduce their electricity use at key times to cut pressure on the grid and prevent blackouts. Uswitch’s scheme allows anyone with a smart meter home display unit to take part, regardless of their electricity provider. To ea...

American Express is set to support small businesses once again with the return of its popular Shop Small Offer. The thee-day-long scheme will reward shoppers for spending money with small businesses across the UK. From December 1 to December 3, American Express UK cardmembers will receive a £5 statement credit when they spend £15 or more at participating small businesses across the UK. The offer can be used up to three times, once per participating small business location, meaning that cardmembers can reward themselves with up to £15 back in statement credits, helping their spending go further this December. The Shop Small Offer will launch on the eve of Small Business Saturday, which returns on December 2, 2023. The offer returns as new research from American Express shows up to 79 pe...

While pension contributions have reached record highs, there has been a significant increase in the amount being withdrawn by those old enough to access their pensions, new data shows. Private pension statistics published by HMRC this week indicate that pension withdrawals by over 55s reached £12.9billion in the fiscal year 2022 to 2023. This amount has risen from £11.2billion in 2021 to 2022 and £9.3billion in 2020 to 2021. Becky O’Connor, director of public affairs at PensionBee, said: “People are increasingly benefiting from pensions either by choice or because salary increases are resulting in a rise in contributions. “However, the apparent increase in the number and value of withdrawals is concerning – the risk is that people take more out to cover the rising cost of living ...

In 2022, the stock market made sense. The world was going through a rough time, due to war in Ukraine, soaring inflation and rocketing interest rates. Global share prices crashed, as you would expect. The US S&P 500 plunged almost 20%, with New York’s Nasdaq tech index tumbling by a third. Investors expected more misery in 2023 as rising inflation and interest rates continue to drive up business borrowing costs, squeeze margins and make customers poorer. Instead, US markets soared due to a bucket load of hype about artificial intelligence (AI). Wall Street has recovered most of last year’s losses. By contrast, London’s FTSE 100 has been sliding since February, when it briefly hit an all-time high of just over 8,000. Now it’s on the up. The FTSE 100 has just enjoye...

Check out what’s clicking on FoxBusiness.com The espresso coffee market is expected to skyrocket by $4.55 billion in the next four years, a market research firm predicted. The study, which was conducted by Technavio, predicts that the market will grow at a compound annual growth rate of 5.84% between 2022 and 2027. They cited new product launches as a driving force in the market. Work-from-home culture and growing demand for espresso machines in workplaces were also cited as key reasons for the projected growth. The study noted that most consumers have access to an espresso machine, whether at home or through work. “For instance, 79% of consumers owned espresso machines at home in 2021, and vendors are offering a variety of machines to cater to the demand,” ...

Former University of Kentucky swimmer Riley Gaines on media spotlighting transgender athletes, founding the Riley Gaines Center at the Leadership Institute and the ongoing Kappa Kappa Gamma lawsuit. After a legal loss in the fight to protect women’s rights, activist and former University of Kentucky All-American swimmer Riley Gaines warned the alleged “perpetrator” is putting the sorority sisters “in harm’s way.” “I’m very close with several of these girls on this case, I just was with one in Omaha this past weekend. And what they’re going through, what this man, Artemis, what he does to them, what he says to them, again, I won’t list too much because of the litigation process, I wish I could, but you would be disturbed,” ...

Dolly Lenz Real Estate CEO Dolly Lenz and managing director Jenny Lenz analyze the New York, Florida and San Francisco real estate markets on ‘The Claman Countdown.’ The Golden City has been no stranger to the volatile housing market, but one New York City real estate powerhouse led by mother-daughter team Dolly and Jenny Lenz warns San Francisco is now a “disaster” for the industry. “It was once the jewel and the crown. San Francisco was our personal favorite city, our clients’ favorite city. The jewel and the crown is a disaster,” Dolly Lenz Real Estate CEO Dolly Lenz said on “The Claman Countdown” Thursday.  “Several huge hoteliers have given back the keys to the lenders” Dolly added. “They just said, ...

Over 367,000 fixed-rate mortgages are due to come to the end of their five-year deals over the next year, the majority of which have an average outstanding balance of £170,000, Equifax analysis revealed. This will mean an average increase in monthly repayments of around £300 if customers revert to a variable rate.‌ Over the past year, interest rates have continued to rise, causing more homeowners to feel the squeeze. As the base rate rises, mortgage rates have consequently done so too. Experts believe the base rate could rise further in the coming months, potentially hitting highs of 5.5 percent. As a result, hundreds of fixed-term deals have been taken off the market and reintroduced with higher rates as providers reassess their options. ‌A host of major lenders have upped their fixed...