Latest news with #selfemployed
BBC News
10 hours ago
- Business
- BBC News
Plans to remove £10k benefit from self-employed on Isle of Man
Plans have been put forward to strip self-employed people of benefits worth £10,000 on average from Isle of Man Treasury said about 50 people would be affected by the proposed change in eligibility for Employed Person's Allowance (EPA).The payments income-related social security payments are made to families and disabled workers with calculations based on a minimum number of hours worked.A Treasury spokesman said some claimants may not be declaring the "full extent of their income" which presented a "significant risk" of them being over paid. EPA payments rely on claimants reporting profits, which were "often unverifiable due to cash-based income and untracked hours", he the 950 claiming the benefit in December last year, 52 were self-employed, with payments to that group totalling £500,000 last occupations of claimants included a childminder, a children's entertainer, a handyman and home baker. Treasury Minister Alex Allinson said having "considered a number of options" it had been "concluded that EPA is not appropriate for the primarily self-employed"."Officers were unable to verify the income or hours worked by claimants and around 40% report earnings below the minimum wage, which raises questions about the sustainability of such businesses," he said the government was "committed" to providing financial support to workers "in genuine need", while making sure payments were "targeted, secure and reliable", he will be asked to support the changes at the July sitting of Tynwald. Read more stories from the Isle of Man on the BBC, watch BBC North West Tonight on BBC iPlayer and follow BBC Isle of Man on Facebook and X.
Free Malaysia Today
15 hours ago
- Free Malaysia Today
Widower jailed 2 years for soliciting sex from teen daughter
The self-employed man pleaded guilty after the charge was read before Muar sessions court judge Sayani Nor. (File pic) PETALING JAYA : A 47-year-old widower has been sentenced to two years in jail and two strokes of the rotan for inviting his teenage daughter to engage in sexual acts. The self-employed man pleaded guilty after the charge was read before Muar sessions court judge Sayani Nor, Harian Metro reported. He was charged with sexually communicating with his 14-year-old daughter, his only child, at a house in Batu Pahat, Johor, at around 4pm on June 16. The charge was framed under Section 11(1)(a) of the Sexual Offences Against Children Act 2017, punishable by a maximum three years in jail upon conviction. The charge was also read with Section 16 of the same Act, which provided for an additional sentence of up to five years and two strokes of the rotan due to the relationship of trust between him and the victim. Deputy public prosecutor Diyana Najihah Fauzi prosecuted while the man was unrepresented. According to the case facts, the victim contacted her aunt earlier this month to express fears that her father might act inappropriately towards her. On the day of the incident, the girl had rejected her father's advances and left his bedroom. The aunt then asked one of her children to pick the girl up from the house.
Yahoo
a day ago
- Business
- Yahoo
American Attorney Working Remotely From Thailand Making $60K/Month in Dividends Shares Stock Portfolio – 'Most of All I Love' Working From Beach
Dividend investing is gaining popularity this year as investors seek to protect their portfolios from market volatility amid the impact of tariffs. Dividend stocks have proved their mettle in market downturns. According to a report from S&P Global, the S&P 500 High Dividend Index outperformed the broader S&P 500 during both the dot-com bubble and the post-pandemic recession. Earlier this month, a dividend investor shared his income report and portfolio details on r/Dividends, a Reddit community with over 730,000 followers. The investor's portfolio screenshots showed his estimated dividend income for June stood at just $60,000. He earned about $52,000 on average per month with a single dividend ETF over the past five months. Don't Miss: Maker of the $60,000 foldable home has 3 factory buildings, 600+ houses built, and big plans to solve housing — Deloitte's fastest-growing software company partners with Amazon, Walmart & Target – Many are rushing to The Redditor said he currently works as a self-employed attorney and makes $600,000, with plans to retire soon. "I am a solo attorney who practices in NY but works remotely from Thailand," he said. "I love the flexibility of being able to set my own schedule and manage my own caseload. Most of all, I love the ability to write briefs from the pool or the beach!" Let's take a look at some of the key holdings of the investor. The YieldMax MSTR Option Income Strategy ETF (NYSE:MSTY) generates income by selling call options on MicroStrategy (NASDAQ:MSTR) stock. The fund is down about 21% so far this year. Trending: Here's what Americans think you need to be considered wealthy. MSTY was the biggest position of the investor, accounting for about 45% of his portfolio. He started a position in the fund about five months ago with 10,000 shares and gradually increased it to 36,838 shares. The investor said he collected about $261,400 in distributions from MSTY over the past five months with an average monthly payout of $52,000. "Of course I understand the risks associated with this type of investment vehicle and nothing lasts forever, past performance is not an indicator of future performance, and well aware of NAV erosion," he said about the fund. He plans to use MSTY's payouts to pay off the mortgage on a new apartment. "Once that is done, I'll reduce my holdings in MSTY to generate $12-14k a month to cover my monthly expenses in NY and Thailand, where I spend a lot of time in," he 16% of the total portfolio of the investor was allocated to JPMorgan Nasdaq Equity Premium Income ETF (NASDAQ:JEPQ). It's a high-yield covered call ETF that distributes monthly dividend income. The ETF invests in Nasdaq companies and generates extra income by selling call options. JPMorgan Equity Premium Income ETF (NYSE:JEPI) makes money by investing in some of the most notable large-cap U.S. stocks and selling call options. Visa (NYSE:V), Mastercard (NYSE:MA), Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META), Oracle (NYSE:ORCL) and Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) are among the fund's top holdings. The fund yields over 11%. Read Next:Peter Thiel turned $1,700 into $5 billion—now accredited investors are eyeing this software company with similar breakout potential. Learn how you can Image: Shutterstock UNLOCKED: 5 NEW TRADES EVERY WEEK. Click now to get top trade ideas daily, plus unlimited access to cutting-edge tools and strategies to gain an edge in the markets. Get the latest stock analysis from Benzinga? APPLE (AAPL): Free Stock Analysis Report TESLA (TSLA): Free Stock Analysis Report This article American Attorney Working Remotely From Thailand Making $60K/Month in Dividends Shares Stock Portfolio – 'Most of All I Love' Working From Beach originally appeared on © 2025 Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.
Telegraph
a day ago
- Business
- Telegraph
In Starmer's Britain hard work is now a mug's game
A relaxation of red tape, perhaps? Or some easier rules on claiming expenses, or extra time to file their tax and VAT returns. There are lots of ways the Government, could help the self-employed and by extension the millions of people who rely on the services they provide, if it chose to. But no. Instead, it is pressing forward with a vastly complex scheme to make them file quarterly instead of annual tax returns, even though this will generate no extra revenue and involve a huge increase in complexity. It is now official: in Labour's Britain, working hard is a mug's game, and it is hardly surprising that so many people who work for themselves are quitting. In China, when they execute you, they make you pay for the bullet. In the UK, we have not quite gone that far with the self-employed, but perhaps it is only a matter of time. According to the latest analysis, the drive towards 'making tax digital' will cost landlords and freelancers an average of £480 a year. Under the scheme, from April 2026 they will have to report their taxes on a quarterly basis and, even worse, they will have to use third party software to report their earnings. Add up all the cost associated with the switch and there is unlikely to be any change out of £500. No one is claiming that it will raise any extra revenue, or that people working for themselves will have to pay more. It will just change the frequency of payment. It is as if a restaurant bought you the bill between each course and got you to fill in a form each time. It is completely pointless. There are, however, two far bigger problems with the whole woeful plan. First, the costs will have to be passed on to customers. It may have escaped the 'Rolls-Royce minds' at the Treasury and HMRC, but we all rely on the services of the self-employed. Perhaps we rent an apartment from one of them, or we get one over to fix a leaking pipe, or they help us with our pension planning, or deliver a burger late at night. If their costs go up, then they will ultimately have to pass that onto their clients in the same way that any other business has to. In turn, that will feed into inflation, and drive up prices for everyone. Next, it will force at least some people out of business. There is already alarming evidence that the self-employed are leaving the labour market. Self-assessed income tax receipts, the money collected from people working for themselves, came in well below the Office of Budget Responsibility's forecasts earlier this year. The only explanation was that the self-employed are working less or opting for early retirement (or if they are purely digital, moving to zero tax Dubai). If we push up their costs even higher, that trend is only going to accelerate. In reality, 'Making Tax Digital' is the perfect encapsulation of the modern British state in action. It is a completely pointless increase in red tape that costs lots of money, creates lots of hassle, and relies on software that probably won't work. Perhaps worst of all, it punishes the hardest working and often most productive section of the workforce. There are still ten months before the scheme comes into effect, leaving plenty of time for the Government to scrap it – and yet right now there is absolutely no sign it is even considering that.
Daily Mail
4 days ago
- Business
- Daily Mail
Is 'autosaving' the new pension solution for the self-employed?
New 'opt out' autosaving apps could get more self-employed people saving for retirement, according to a new finance industry study. Just 18 per cent of the 4.4million people who work for themselves in this country are actively saving into a pension, it found. But three quarters would like to do so, and a government-backed project is trying to come up with a new version of pension auto enrolment that would suit them. 'Autosaving' via banking platforms or software used by the self-employed is being floated as a potential solution by Nest Insight, which is trialling options that combine easy access and retirement savings in one place. The idea is that self-employed people are less likely to opt out of an autosave tool if they retain control over contribution levels, and also the threshold at which their savings start being diverted to a longer-term retirement plan. This is a version of something previously dubbed 'sidecar' saving. The latest research has involved Lloyds Banking Group creating and testing 'autosave' apps with self-employed volunteers. People who work for themselves missed out on the successful auto enrolment initiative that opted millions of employees into pensions. Unless they actively opt out, employees save a minimum of 8 per cent of qualifying earnings - between £6,240 and £50,270 of salary - made up of a combination of personal and employer contributions plus pension tax relief from the Government. Self-employed people don't get the perk of free contributions from employers into their retirement funds, but do receive tax relief top-ups like everyone else. How would 'autosaving' work? The plan involves a self-employed person being automatically signed up to a long-term or retirement savings scheme. 'They can choose whether or not to save,' says Nest Insight. 'If they want to save, they don't need to do anything. 'They automatically start saving a default amount either into their retirement saving account or, if a liquid buffer is added to the account structure, into an accessible savings account where contributions roll into retirement saving when a set of criteria are reached.' Someone can opt out, change their savings level, pause or stop saving at any point. If they choose to include a liquid, easy access savings account, they can take out the cash in that at any point without penalty. Nest Insight adds regarding its research: 'Perceptions of autosave were generally favourable. Over three in four people said they would like to be offered it, or that they didn't mind.' What about using the tax system instead? Influential think-tank the Institute for Fiscal Studies suggested last year that self-employed people could be persuaded into pension saving when filing annual tax returns. One of its ideas was forcing them to make an active choice about the size of pension contributions they want to make - with 'zero' being an option - into their own or a default pension plan or Lifetime Isa when they fill in their self-assessment return. Another was auto enrolling them at a set level of contribution that would ratchet up over time, but which they could opt out of if they wished. In Nest Insight's new study, it says: 'Self-assessment is relatively universal among self-employed people, and it increasingly offers software interfaces, as HMRC's platforms become more digital. 'However, self-employed people interact with HMRC on a far less frequent basis than employees do with payroll. 'Also, in these cases, a self-employed individual is generally paying taxes to HMRC, rather than receiving a stream of income from which a retirement contribution could be deducted.' It adds there are structural challenges that currently make it difficult to manage enrolment and contributions into private savings vehicles through self-assessment, though there might be opportunities as Making Tax Digital evolves, but it is not carrying out tests in this area. Nest Insight, which is a research unit set up by Government-backed pension provider Nest, says its next steps will be trialling and fine-tuning autosaving on a larger scale, and exploring how it would work in real world settings The Department for Work and Pensions is supporting the project, and Pensions Minister Torsten Bell says: 'Initial responses of the participants to the idea were positive and suggest it is worth further exploration of an autosave feature embedded within banking platforms and self-employment software platforms.' He says this is provided the feature offers transparency and control over contributions, the threshold at which savings would roll into a pension, and the option to pause or cancel at any time. 'The online lab-based study also explored a sidecar-like, or hybrid approach, which may be particularly beneficial for those with irregular incomes,' says Bell. 'It found that retirement saving accounts which include an element of accessible savings may encourage higher participation rates. The presence of a liquid savings buffer appears to provide a sense of control and reassurance to self-employed people.' Graeme Bold, managing director of pensions and retirement at Scottish Widows, part of Lloyds, says: 'The self-employed pensions gap is critical – more than half of self-employed individuals are on track for poverty in retirement, compared to just 25 per cent of full-time workers. 'Self-employed workers need flexibility, and our study allowed us to test hybrid, flexible savings models tailored to their unique needs. The results are a significant leap forward.'
