Money

Chancellor Rachel Reeves' ill-thought-out raid means anyone inheriting a farm worth £1million plus could face a 20 per cent tax on anything above the sum from April 2026 (though still half the 40 per cent rate paid by other estates). The National Farmers' Union fears 75 per cent of the more than 209,000 farms in Britain could be affected. Are there any financial solutions? We asked tax experts Mark Levitt, a partner at tax, accountancy and business advisory firm Blick Rothenberg, and Sam Dewes, a partner at HW Fisher.

The price cap, currently £1,717 a year for average energy use, will increase by £1,738 on 1 January 2025. It means the typical home will pay an extra £21 a year for energy, until the price cap is reset again in April.

Their pension pots are some 27 per cent smaller than their male counterparts, according to a study from financial services firm Legal & General and think tank the Happiness Research Institute. The research found pensioners of both sexes with an average monthly income of about £1,700 are the most likely to be happy, but just 38 per cent receive an income of this level or above. Women are less likely to achieve this, says Legal & General, as some 28 per cent live on less than £1,000 a month compared to 14 per cent of men.

More families will be drawn into inheritance tax from 2027, and some will want to start planning now to mitigate the effects, says Gary Smith of Evelyn Partners. Many retirees, and especially those close to and above age 75, will be revising what to do with their pots and that will probably lead to more pension savings being drawn down - but there are other options, he explains.

Charging on your driveway is on average over 50 per cent per unit cheaper than charging at a public charger, but if you take advantage of smart charging and off-peak electricity rates it can be even greater. To help you pick your new home charger 4,000 EV drivers ranked the best home chargers across seven categories. Here are the results - so you know which charger and installation services are worth every penny.

A two-bedroom 2,759 sq ft triplex penthouse located in the heart of Westminster, London, has gone on sale for £3,950,000. The unique flat is located at Whitehall Court, the former home of MI6 spymaster Sir Mansfield Cumming and screenwriter Brian Clemens.

The prospect of a '100-year life' is becoming increasingly likely, thanks to medical advancements and improvements in our standard of living. For today's workers, a 35-year retirement is a growing possibility. But can they afford it? We look at how big a pension needs to be - and how to boost your pot.

More households will get heat pump grants worth up to £7,500 as the Government has added another £325million to the Boiler Upgrade Scheme (BUS). It is putting more money into the Boiler Upgrade scheme which gives grants for heat pumps - as well as scrapping red tape around the green devices.

The number of people setting up a legal failsafe in case they fall ill is soaring, but nearly 51,000 applications were rejected last year. Mistakes often made include misspelled names, missing or illegible information and conflicting instructions to attorneys. Find out what errors to avoid, and a checklist of what not to forget, when making applications.

With passive funds proving a much cheaper option for investors, it is unsurprising that an increasing number are choosing to move their investments into passive trackers. But there could also be an opportunity for investors to buy in to struggling active funds ahead of an upturn in fortunes, according to AJ Bell's Dan Coatsworth.

When sitting as a judge, it fell to me to try a number of parking ticket cases, says author and former judge Stephen Gold. Coming up is a selection of the best defences that have succeeded in the county court. Any of them would be usable in the earlier stages of a dispute - both an initial challenge to the car park operator and a second bite with an independent appeals service.

The headline and core rate of inflation have both risen. What does this mean for your finances and where does it leave the Bank of England on rate hikes? We look at all this and more.

For anyone looking to buy a new electric vehicle it seems to be Black Friday all month. UK car dealers are offering dramatic discounts of more than a third off some new EV prices. This year, even prime models from blue-chip brands are up for grabs at super-low prices. Current offers include £8,000 off the Hyundai Ioniq 5, £9,000 off the VW ID4 SUV and £10,000 off the BMW i4 coupe.

Blue Whale's Stephen Yiu reveals where he sees Trump as a tailwind and what that means for some of the big name global stocks in his portfolio. The Blue Whale manager also discussed where he sees opportunities now and why he is choosing to back AI in a very specific way.

The Government has re-committed to keeping the 5% cap on council tax rises. However, in some areas it can be increased by even more. Ahead of the rise, now is the time to see if you can lower your council tax bill or even receive money back - which may apply to you, especially if your circumstances have recently changed.

Superannuation schemes (Supers) and their performance are often a topic of social conversation, and they are advertised in prominent locations like on billboards and in stadiums, says Mike Ambery of Standard Life. Sometimes held up as the panacea for all our pensions issues, Australian pensions are familiar in some ways but incredibly different in others to our own, he explains.

With baggy jeans and Adidas Campus trainers back in vogue, you could be forgiven for thinking you had been transported back 20 years to a time when kids used Tamagotchis instead of TikTok, and selfies were taken using digital cameras instead of smartphones. Except young people are now using noughties compact digital cameras once again, with the trend having taken off on social media thanks to their 'retro' look and grainy picture quality. Now could be an opportune time to go searching for your old camera, currently gathering dust in the back of a cupboard or a box in the attic. You could find yourself able to net more than £100.

Emma Sayle, 46, who attended the same Downe House School in Berkshire as Kate Middleton and was spotted with the future Princess of Wales during her brief break-up with Prince William in 2007, founded London-based Killing Kittens 20 years ago. The company that claims to allow women to 'feel in control' and able to 'explore their sexuality' has become an established part of London's nightlife. Now Sayle has plans to expand the business overseas.

Married couples and civil partners can inherit from each other free of inheritance tax. That means that when a partner dies, the surviving one does not face a tax bill on their shared home and savings. But siblings who live together in old age are not afforded the same protection and are treated like everyone else, meaning their whole estate is potentially liable to IHT. Like long-term cohabitees, if a sibling dies, they face a hefty bill and if they don't have the funds to pay it, they will be forced to sell the home to cover costs.

My wife and I are remortgaging at the end of the year and trying to weigh up our options between a two-year and a five-year fixed rate mortgage. What's your view? There isn't a huge difference in monthly repayments between the two, but trying to get a sense of what will happen to interest rates in the future is a challenge.

I had always understood my Self-Invested Personal Pension (Sipp) contributions were held in trust and that the trustees had the power to decide who payments from it should be made to after my death. As a result, I signed an expression of wishes form to say who I would like the recipient to be, but understood the trustees were not obliged to honour this. Since the whole of my pension contributions were made more than seven years ago does this mean that they are exempt from the recent budget proposal to add the pension pot to my estate for inheritance tax purposes?

Bosses say they expect to retain just 15% of the company's existing customers when it relaunches as an EV-only brand with a new image. By dumping petrol and diesel engines four years ahead of the Government's deadline and adopting a new image to appeal to younger buyers, Jaguar says it expects to retain just 15% of the marque's existing customers.

We have a two-year fixed rate mortgage which comes to an end next June. Me and my partner separated but maintaining the mortgage payments. We pay fifty-fifty. We have £300,000 left on our mortgage and about 25 years. He still wants us to keep the mortgage together to get better rates and think us changing anything will only impact our mortgage. What are my options?

Everybody loves a good discount and that's exactly what is being offered to buyers of investment trusts. These stock market-listed investment companies offer access to a world of tempting portfolios, from handpicked selections of UK shares to clusters of shares in income-generating renewable energy firms. Investment trusts have unique properties which mean they are well placed to provide a steady stream of income - in good times and bad (see box). What is more, they can be held in an Individual Savings Account (Isa) so that all returns are completely tax free. But in recent months, they have fallen out of favour with investors. This has driven down share prices so that currently they are discounted at 15.2 per cent on average. This means that, in theory, investors can snap up investments worth £100 for around £85. But before you start rummaging through the bargain bins, you need to ask yourself a few questions.

Choosing the right DIY platform is crucial but a wealth of choice and a variety of charges can leave investors scratching their heads. We pick some of the best. We pick some of the best. We also highlight why investing in an Isa makes sense, as it should protect your hopefully growing investments from tax forever.