Bonfire Night

Solomons-financial-advisor-wimbledon-blogger

Bonfire Night

Remember, remember the fifth of November… its Bonfire night…. which means we celebrate the burning of a “terrorist”. I imagine that most people would find this concept rather odd in 2015, some 410 years after the failed gunpowder plot, we continue to celebrate the foiling of the plot to blow up Parliament and the capture, torture and execution of its participants. In reality it is of course, just something of an excuse to have a communal get together on a cold November night, warm ourselves beside a large fire and gaze at fireworks. I don’t know anyone that would seriously suggest that this is indeed a celebration of our “democracy” or that we celebrate the torture and execution of “villains”.

Perspective

As a child, I hadn’t given much thought to the historical evidence about Guy Fawkes and just took it as it is, a slightly odd custom, that’s a bit of fun. I was challenged by my own views, when my daughters attended a catholic school who took quite a different position to the historical events. To my shame, I hadn’t really considered the impact, despite being someone who holds no grudge against catholics and was always perplexed by the troubles in Northern Ireland and how two groups both claiming to be christian could be so violently opposing.

Songs of Innocence

As a teenager I grew up baffled by current war – I had a historical context of the two world wars, with family members in each, yet saw this as history, something that I am thankful that we “won”. Much like many teenage boys I consumed a plethora of action and war movies, but found myself siding with the underdog, a natural step being to support those that required help against bullies, which musically as a teenager located a natural home in U2 who sang of the contradictions and struggles of faith and growing up in Ireland with songs like “Sunday Bloody Sunday”, “I will Follow”, “Gloria” and “Pride”.

I grew up with their music, encouraged to confront injustice, however uncomfortable and close to home. I’m told that U2 and Bono in particular is one of those Marmite types – love them or hate them. I have never really understood the complaints of those that dislike U2, but certainly could agree that celebrity multimillionaires telling everyone else what to do with their time and money was perhaps irksome. Yet in all my time as a fan, I never had the sense that I was being told what to think, feel or do… but rather to bring “it” to a visual and musical dynamic place.

U2 @ O2 #U2ieTour

So this week, I was again seeing my favourite band. This time at the O2 (a perfect venue for sound distortion). The crowd was predominantly made up of my own generation with very few from my children’s. Balding heads in their thousands gathered to sing and… well take photos. As ever, it was a visual feast, with prose and technology neatly juxtaposed…. in screen, on-screen, in the flesh. Rebooted versions of “October” set against video feed of a bombed Syrian city, “Pride” reworked lines to recall the image of the child refugee washed up on the beach and “Bullet in the Blue Sky” a personal confrontation about the apparent contradictions Bono faces as challenged to remember his roots and the glaring problem with his call to see the fighter planes, when he travels in private planes…. and a reflection of a childhood growing up with marches, bombings and walls…. yet all the time holding to the promise that peace can be achieved and that compromise is the braver move, with Ireland now being a real example of peace being achieved.

Perhaps a lot to digest on Bonfire night, but as the whiff of gunpowder lingers I will continue to reflect on the reality that fireworks are the only delightful use of gunpowder. As for U2, well much like Bonfire night, I’m still left with a warm glow. If you wish to find out about their world tour… click here for the link…… what has this got to do with financial planning? well, that the firm is shaped from my values of fairness and struggles with injustice, greed and the benefits of lucky geography… in one sense both everything and nothing… with or without you.

Dominic Thomas
Solomons IFA

You can read more articles about Pensions, Wealth Management, Retirement, Investments, Financial Planning and Estate Planning on my blog which gets updated every week. If you would like to talk to me about your personal wealth planning and how we can make you stay wealthier for longer then please get in touch by calling 08000 736 273 or email info@solomonsifa.co.uk

The Best Tax Systems In The World

The Best Tax Systems For Entrepreneurs

The UK is currently 16th in the world when it comes to the best tax system in the world for small to medium sized businesses. PWC, the big Accountancy firm conducted research on a global scale over several years. They considered the rates of tax, the time taken to pay it and comply with tax rules as well as the number of times tax has to be paid in a year. The UK’s position is improving, but still not in the top ten. This suggests that UK Governments are making it a little easier for entrepreneurs to start and develop their businesses. This after all is where economic growth is found and where wealth for individuals and the nation is created. However Ireland our closest neighbours is rather more favourable and ranked 6th by PWC.

Cutting Through The Red Tape

PWC are reported to have found that the typical UK SME now spends 267 hours a year complying with tax rules. A decrease of 54 hours over the eight year period that was reviewed, representing a 17% improvement. They also found that the average medium sized firm pays a tax rate of 44.7% on profits.

The Top Twenty Tax Systems

For those of you that like lists, the top twenty are as follows:

United Arab Emirates
Qatar
Saudi Arabia
Hong Kong
Singapore
Ireland
Bahrain
Canada
Kiribati
Oman
Kuwait
Mauritius
Denmark
Luxembourg
Malaysia
UK
Kazakhstan
Switzerland
Norway
Seychelles

Of course, entrepreneurs seek solutions to all manner of problems when it comes to running a business. A common trait amongst successful entrepreneurs is that they collaborate creatively and take responsibility for their actions. These are precisely the sort of people I work with.