Bank finance articles and tips

Many people think that they can go through life without a budget. Then one day they wake up and realize that month after month their money is disappearing and they have no idea where it goes. Budget planning is the answer to this dilemma and will also bring you financial freedom....

There are so many Forex brokers available on the internet today. You can open an account in no time at all, enter the Forex market and begin to trade currencies before you know it. Because there is much competition between different brokers, they always try to compete with each other through their trading platforms and such. Brokers also compete on the minimum deposits that they offer, which is why minimum deposits tend to be low in Forex trading....

Ever heard of corporate intelligence, corporate security, and counterespionage? Well, there are people whose main business is to mind your business by scavenging through your garbage, undermining your privacy and stealing corporate information. Just when you think having your own paper shredder and performing in-house shredding is enough - think again. There are pitfalls to this practice, and you are as endangered as when you didn't have a shredder...

Carrying out company credit checks on potential and existing clients should be an everyday part of business life however many companies are still leaving themselves open to the threat of bad debt by not carrying out such checks. Conducting credit checks through company credit reports will usually provide a credit score - allowing businesses to make better informed decisions about whether to extend credit. However whilst carrying out such checks sounds like common sense, less than a third (31%) of UK companies perform a credit check before trading. And this looks unforgivable when you consider that almost half (47%) of UK businesses have lost money in the last year when trading with another company.

Whilst these figures are shocking, we'll now look at some of the other reasons why reviewing company credit reports and other credit checking tools is vital to ensuring your business' success....

Debtors are one of the largest assets in the financial statements of a company and should therefore be safeguarded through timely collections. Many solvent companies have gone under-receivership for failure to manage and collect from their clients. For a positive cash flow, debtors must be managed through effective credit control methods....

As Benjamin Franklin said, 'the only things that are certain in life are death and taxes', a statement which has stood the test of time and Inheritance Tax touches on both of these issues. When you pass away, an assessment is made as to the value of your estate, including cash, property businesses and so on. If this exceeds the current nil rate band (set at £325,000 until 2014) then your family will have to pay 40% tax on all other assets.

This tax bill can be reduced through various methods, but you must consider the impact of these options and do an Inheritance Planning Review as there is rarely one solution which suits most people. For example the easiest way to avoid it is to gift your money away and live longer than 7 years so that the gift is completely outside your taxable estate. However there are obviously issues here regarding whether you would like access to this money again, whether it is wise to give your beneficiaries large amounts of money when they are young and so on.