£1 388 000 000 000 Bank Bail Out

£1 388 000 000 000 is the amount of money the Bank of England & Treasury have spent on bailing out various banks.

This includes:

£319 000 000 000 on Royal Bank of Scotland
£266 000 000 000 on Halifax Bank of Scotland & Lloyds TSB
£113 000 000 000 on Northern Rock.

Figures come form Fathom Consulting.

Posted by Sean Wilson, APFS, Independent Financial Advisers (IFA), Swindon, Wiltshire.

Tax Relief on Pensions: Budget 2009

One of the big areas you can save money on income tax is by putting the money into a pension rather than taking it as salary. Currently you could save up to 40p tax for every £1 in salary.

For people earning over £150 000. This will be reduced over the next few years from 40% to 20% tax relief.

Pensions experts are already devising ways round this....

Posted by Sean Wilson, APFS, Independent Financial Advisers (IFA), Swindon, Wiltshire.