Clinton Cards gone into admin

Clinton Cards, who have a store in the Rochdale Exchange Shopping Centre, has been placed into administration.
Founded in 1968, it is the UK's biggest card retailer, operating 628 Clinton shops and 139 Birthdays stores and employing more than 8,000 staff.

In March, Clinton reported a loss of £3.7m for the six months to the end of January and said the outlook for 2012 was worse than previously thought.

On Wednesday, it said like-for-like sales, which strip out the impact of sales from shops opened or closed in the past year, fell 3.5% in the past 14 weeks compared with a year earlier.

The company said Barclays Bank and Royal Bank of Scotland had sold its loan facilities to American Greetings.

It said that although it had not breached any covenants or repayment obligations, it had been given certain temporary waivers for "technical breaches" by the banks.

Clinton said it had originally believed that American Greetings would extend these waivers.

"However, having secured control of the debt, American Greetings immediately informed the board that it intended to enforce the loan against the company," the retailer said in a statement earlier on Wednesday.

"The board has concluded that because it is unable to repay the loan, it has no option but to concur with American Greetings' proposal to place the company and its subsidiaries into administration." bad credit loans

Clinton has been restructuring its business to try and turn around its fortunes, including closing a number of Clinton and Birthdays-branded UK stores. unsecured loans

Austerity

During the financial crisis, the message from Brussels has been that struggling euro zone countries must cut their budget deficits and carry out structural reforms to increase competitiveness.

However, with unemployment at record highs and some peripheral countries already deep in recession, Europe must turn its attention to ways to stimulate economic growth to lessen the blow of austerity measures, Olli Rehn, Europe's commissioner for economic and monetary affairs, said.
"Fiscal consolidation, while necessary (needs to be) done in a growth-friendly and differentiated way, in order to strike a balance between necessary fiscal consolidation and concerns for growth," he said in a speech at the Free University of Brussels.
Speaking on the eve of elections in France and Greece that could undermine Europe's hardline stance on budget discipline, he said, "Vulnerable member states under close market scrutiny need to convince both the market forces and policy-makers over their capacity to tackle fiscal challenges and thus create confidence."
Economists have suggested that tough deficit reduction policies could be eased to help Spain and Italy avoid a recessionary spiral, although bond markets have reacted badly, punishing Spain after it raised its 2012 deficit target.
Europe is now formulating a strategy to stimulate growth and intends to launch it at an EU leaders' summit in late June. UNsecured loans

Italy and Belgium's leaders fell in behind European Central Bank President Mario Draghi's calls for a "growth compact" last week to stand alongside the bloc's fiscal compact for budget discipline.
One strategy is to increase the capital of the European Investment Bank, the EU's long-term lender, to allow it to make bigger investments in infrastructure projects and related areas across the European Union's 27 member countries. bad credit loans

"With the European Investment bank, the EU has a powerful institution to support growth and employment," said Rehn.
However, while the Commission may be eager to promote growth policies, Europe's paymaster Germany is reluctant to let countries backslide on austerity targets.
German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble told a conference in Spain this week that Europe's focus on austerity should continue, even if talks over the coming weeks at a European Union level examine ways to stimulate growth.

Financing a sailing holiday

While it’s true that if you want to sail a J-class super yacht in the Med for the week you’ll certainly pay for it, sailing holidays don’t have to cost the earth. There are sailing holiday options open to all budgets and here we take a look at the options and help you find a trip that you can afford.

The price of a sailing holiday is dependant on three main factors – the destination you choose, the size of the boat you hire, and the number of skippers and crewmembers skills you need aboard with you.

The destination and time of year that you book can make a huge difference to your sailing trip costs. The Med or the Caribbean in the height of summer is understandably going to be more expensive than at other times of year. If your travel schedule is flexible, try to book outwith the peak summer months.

Areas that are in high demand will cost you more too. So if you want to make savings, think outside the box when it comes to picking your destination. unsecured loans Recent years have seen a growing number of affordable package deals to Turkeys for example, where you pay for your flights, week’s sailing and accommodation in one lump sum.

As a general rule, the smaller the vessel you choose, the less you will pay. A great way to enjoy a more luxurious boat is to team up with friends or relatives for a joint holiday. This way the costs of hire can be split between more people, making it more affordable for all.

Costs will rise if you need the services of a skipper and crewmembers. If you have no previous sailing experience, then this is essential. However, if you do have sailing experience, at least to RYA day-skipper level and have a minimum of one other person willing and able to act as competent crew, then you could ‘bareboat’ a yacht instead. So long as you have proven sailing experience, you can agree to charter a boat without crew, and this can be a good deal cheaper.

If you are a regular sailor, then it could pay you to get into the habit of saving regularly throughout the year, rather than having to make one large payment each year that could stretch your finances. Choose a savings account that pays as high a rate of interest as possible. Comparison bad credit loans sites can be useful here, making it easier to compare rates. Searching online has further advantages in that larger banks such as Santander tend to offer their best rates on the online savings accounts too.

Buying in bulk Strategies

Day traders employ certain techniques to increase their profits. Two of the most important are leverage and selling short. We've discussed leverage several times throughout the article, but it's worth mentioning again. If you'll recall, leverage is the process of borrowing money to make more money.

Let's say a particular trade results in a 10 percent return. If you have $50,000 in your account, then your return will be $5,000. But if you borrow another $50,000 and add it to your account, then your return doubles -- you make $10,000. Leverage enables you to increase the dollars returned to you without increasing the performance of the trade.

Where do day traders find this money? They generally borrow it from their brokerage firms, using a special account known as a margin account. The margin account is different from a trader's cash account and requires an initial investment of at least $2,000. Once the margin account is opened, a trader can borrow up to 50 percent of the purchase price of a stock. This is also known as buying on margin. unsecured loans

Another borrowing strategy is selling short. A day trader who sells short borrows a security and then sells it in the hopes of repaying the loan by buying back cheaper shares later on. In this case, the trader looks for a security that is going down in price (as opposed to the more common practice of buying low and selling high). Once he identifies such a security, the trader: bad credit loans

1. Places an order to sell the stock
2. Tells the broker he does not own the shares, but instead wants to borrow them
3. Sits back as the brokerage firm borrows the shares, loans them to his account and executes the sell order
4. Waits until the security goes down in price, then buys the shares in the market
5. Returns shares to the broker to pay back the loan
6. Keeps the difference as profit

Both leverage and selling short carry certain risks, and both can result in a day trader losing his assets and being asked to pay back those he borrowed. One of the biggest dangers is the margin call. A margin call may be issued when the value of a trader's margin account falls below a preset limit known as the maintenance margin. To satisfy the margin call, a trader must deposit more money into his account. If he can't do that, the broker will start selling the trader's securities until the maintenance margin is once again attained. Under most margin agreements, a firm can sell a trader's securities without waiting for him to meet the margin call. He may not even be able to control which securities are sold.

To reduce the risks associated with trading on margin, day traders use stop-losses. A stop loss order is an order to sell a security at the market price as soon as it hits a predetermined level. The advantage of a stop order is that a trader doesn't have to obsess over a stock's performance, knowing he has a measure of protection. The disadvantage is that the stop price could be triggered by a short-term fluctuation in a stock's price. Still, a stop order is an important tool for day traders, as is a "mental" stop-loss: a maximum amount that a trader is willing to lose in a day.

How can I avoid paying tax on my redundancy?

How to pay less income tax on a redundancy payment

I’m shortly to be made redundant. I understand that any monies due to me over £30,000 (not including Lieu of notice which tax and NI will be taken off at source) I will be liable to pay tax on and this may push some of my redundancy into the 40p tax bracket. Apart from putting it into a pension, is there anyway I can avoid paying this tax, such as spending on home improvements?

My response:


That’s a good question.

For clarity let me briefly explain the £30,000 limit for other readers. Generally speaking the first £30,000 of redundancy pay is not taxable providing certain criteria laid down by the taxman are met (i.e. that it is not part of a retirement package). unsecured loans

After that anything in excess of this limit is taxed at your marginal income tax rate. So if you pay 40% tax then unfortunately your lump sum amount over £30,000 will get hammered by the tax man (he’ll tax 40% of it). For the record you won’t pay National Insurance on any part of your redundancy payment.

So what can you do to avoid tax on your redundancy payment?


First things first:

• Read HMRC’s redundancy factsheet.
• Next speak to your employer and check that they have ensured that your redundancy fits the tax man’s criteria to ensure that you don’t pay tax on the first £30,000.
• Usually as part of any redundancy procedure an employer will offer some HR services such as a careers adviser etc. Ask to speak to the company’s tax accountant as they should be able to help you with any tax queries.

But in the meantime I’ve set out a few pointers that may help:

Pensions


As you state in your question, the number one way to avoid tax on a redundancy payment is to have some of it paid into a pension. That way you could reclaim the income tax and the gross amount could be used to fund your retirement. But the major downside of this is that your money is locked up in a pension until you are age 55.

Under current rules you could then only take 25% of the pension fund as a tax free lump sum while the rest would have to provide you with a retirement income. There are odd exceptions to this rule such as the ‘pension triviality’ scenario. However, pension rules are changing which will give people greater access to their pension fund. If you want to explore the pension route further then take financial advice as the legislation/proposals are a bit of a minefield.

Obviously there are limits to how much you can pay into a pension in any event, although you could technically pay into one on behalf of a spouse or child and claim a limited amount of tax relief.

Tax incentivised investments


There are tax incentivised investments such as VCTs which give you income tax relief at outset. But I would strongly suggest that these would not be appropriate for a redundancy payment you need to live on. They tend to be very high risk and you are in danger of losing the initial capital invested. You should never enter an investment just to save tax. I only mention tax incentivised investments for completeness of my answer. Always seek financial advice before doing anything.

Income tax mitigation


Another way to look at the problem is to not concentrate on the redundancy payment itself but look at reducing your income tax bill elsewhere. That way less of your redundancy payment will fall into the 40% tax bracket. You could do this by deferring any unneeded income until the next tax year or by moving any income producing assets such as savings into a spouse’s name. Read my post Money tip #81 – Utilise your family’s annual tax allowances and slash your tax bill for more information. Unfortunately, we are at the end of the tax year and as an employee paid under PAYE your options for reducing your income tax bill may be limited unless you…..

Delay your redundancy 


Is there anyway you can delay the termination date of your employment until after 6^th April 2011? If you were able to then you will not be a 40% income tax payer as you won’t have had any earnings. You would then have time (namely the rest of the tax year) to manage your future income in order to pay as little tax on your redundancy payment as possible.

Get your redundancy after you leave


If you are paid your redundancy after you have left employment then legally your employer can only deduct 20% tax from the taxable part of your redundancy lump sum. The balance of any tax due on this part (a further 20% in your case) will be payable on 31^st January 2012 if you are made redundant in this tax year. You will have to pay this via self assessment. Obviously if you were bad credit loans made redundant after April 2011 then the balance of any tax you owe will not be payable until 31^stJanuary 2013. But whatever happens the tax man will want his money so make sure you have a means of paying him. But ultimately this delayed payment route doesn’t save you tax it just spreads out the payment of it.

financing a business

According to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, “finance is critical for starting, maintaining, and growing small and medium businesses”. Based on this premise, it is important to look for a reliable source of funds to ensure you will be able to allocate enough cash for the different aspects of the operation.

Here are a few of them:

Bank loans – This is the ideal source of business finance, whether you have a new enterprise or you have recently acquired one. Applying for a business credit may take some time because you need to present proposals, feasibility analyses, and others. But you will realise that it is well worth the effort because the money you borrow will be put to good use.

Investors – You can attract outside investors in exchange for a share in the business and its profit. However, this is only feasible if the existing firm has a good record that can entice other entrepreneurs.
Savings – This is the safest way to acquire cash to finance a commercial venture. After all, you do not have to worry about allocating funds every month or year for the repayment of any debt. unsecured loans
To make sure that the money you borrow from lending firms becomes an investment, it would be more practical to buy an existing and established enterprise. This way, you do not have to come up with a new concept and you can just wait for the money to start rolling. bad credit loans

The Merchant Of Venice

 Antonio, a wealthy merchant and a generous man, has a friend, Bassanio, likeable but reckless, and now penniless. Bassanio loves a beautiful lady, Portia, who lives at a distance. He wishes to woo and win her, but lacks travel money, and proposes to borrow from Antonio.

Unfortunately, all of Antonio's money is invested in merchandise now on ships at sea. When the ships return in two months with the profits from the voyage, then Antonio will have an abundance of money, but in the meantime he cannot help Bassanio, who does not feel that he can afford to wait two months. Antonio therefore proposes to go to Shylock the Jew and borrow the money from him.

[It should be explained that the common view among Christians in Shakespeare's time was that it was immoral to charge interest on a loan. Jews are allowed by the Law of Moses to charge interest when lending to Gentiles (see Deuteronomy 23:19f), and in many countries found that this was almost the only way of making a living that was open to them.]

Shylock says (I paraphrase): Why should I lend you money? You are no friend of mine. I know that you do not like Jews. You spat at me yesterday.

Antonio replies: I am not asking for a favor. This is strictly a business proposition. Three thousand ducats for three months, at your usual rate of interest.

Shylock says: Forget the interest. Instead, agree that if you fail to repay me in full by the deadline, I am entitled to one pound of your flesh, said pound to be selected by me. Why? Call it a whim. Take it or leave it!

Antonio takes the loan, and soon Bassanio is off to Belmont, the country estate of his lady. She loves him, and readily agrees to marry him. Her maid Nerissa likewise agrees to marry his servant Gratiano. Each woman gives her suitor a ring as a token of her love.

Meanwhile, back in Venice, Shylock's daughter Jessica, his only living relative (her mother is dead), falls in love with a Christian youth called Lorenzo, and he with her. She becomes a Christian, and the two of them elope together, with Antonio's assistance. Shylock is furious, and when he hears that Antonio's ships have been wrecked and that Antonio is bankrupt, he determines to exact vengeance.

Antonio sends a letter to Bassanio at Belmont, telling him what has happened. Portia gives her new husband money and sends him back to Venice in haste to rescue his friend, telling him to spare no expense. Bassanio dashes off, and Portia determines on further action. She and her maid Nerissa disguise themselves as men, and travel to Venice to take a direct hand in the proceedings.

In Venice, the court assembles, with the Duke of Venice on the bench. Shylock presents his claim. Portia and Nerissa enter, disguised as a learned Doctor of Laws and his clerk, and offer their services on behalf of Antonio.

Portia says: Here is the money, three times the money, ten times the money. Take it and tell me to tear up the contract.

Shylock says: The deadline is past. I am entitled to one pound of flesh. I want what the contract entitles me to, neither more nor less nor other.

Bassanio says: What is the problem? No one here (with the one obvious exception) wants to see Antonio hurt. So, let us just throw Shylock out of court, and all go home and forget the whole thing.
Portia says: Impossible. You cannot simply ignore the law when its strict application is to your disadvantage. That is the same as having no law at all.

Shylock says: Well spoken. You are a wise and upright judge.
Portia says: It is for you to be merciful.

Shylock says: I do not find anything in the contract obliging me to be merciful.
Portia says: Mercy is not something you show because a contract requires it. It is an act of generosity, done when you do not have to do it. (Shakespeare's words follow:)

  "The quality of mercy is not strained.
   It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven
   upon the place beneath. It is twice blessed.
   It blesseth him who gives, and him who takes...
   It is an attribute to God Himself;
   and earthly power doth then show likest God's
   when mercy seasons justice. Therefore, Jew,
   though justice be thy plea, consider this,
   that, in the course of justice, none of us
   should see salvation. We do pray for mercy;
   and that same prayer doth teach us all to render
   the deeds of mercy." (IV,i,184-202)

Shylock says: You are wasting your time. I want what my contract entitles me to. Portia says: Very well. Your contract entitles you to one pound of flesh, but not to a single drop of blood. So start cutting, but if you shed any blood, your life is forfeit. There is more. You have conspired against the life of a citizen. Your wealth is forfeit to Antonio and to the state, and your life lies at the mercy of the Duke.
The Duke and Antonio agree to spare Antonio's life, and to let him keep half his goods, with the other half going to Jessica and her new husband, on condition that Shylock put his daughter back into his will, and that he become a Christian. The Duke agrees, and Shylock is led off to be baptized.

Bassanio is profuse in his thanks to the "Doctor of Laws," and promises to pay whatever he is asked.
Portia asks for the ring that Bassanio is wearing. Bassanio is dismayed, but trapped. Nerissa similarly acquires Gratiano's ring. They depart.

The scene shifts to Belmont, where Lorenzo and Jessica have sought refuge. We see them in the garden, where Lorenzo says (Shakespeare's words here):

    "How sweet the moonlight sleeps upon this bank!
     Here will we sit and let the sounds of music
     creep in our ears. Soft stillness and the night
     become the touches of sweet harmony.
     Sit, Jessica. Look how the floor of heaven
     is thick inlaid with patines of bright gold.
     There's not the smallest orb which thou beholdest
     but in his motion like an angel sings,
     still choiring to the young-eyed cherubim.
     Such harmony is in immortal souls,
     but while this muddy vesture of decay
     doth grossly close it in, we cannot hear it." (V,i,54-65)

Soon Portia and Nerissa join them, having rushed back from Venice ahead of their husbands. The husbands duly arrive, and their wives first give them a hard time for losing the rings, and then produce the rings and reveal their part in saving Antonio's life. Bassanio and Portia embrace. Gratiano and Nerissa embrace. Lorenzo and Jessica embrace. Antonio smiles and nods. Everyone is happy. The End.

 
Now, how are we to interpret this play? If we are going to direct a production of it, how do we approach it?
One way is to treat it straightforwardly as an anti-Jewish play. There is precedent for this. We know that some early productions had Shylock as a red-haired hunchback, which is the way that Judas Iscariot usually appeared on stage. Villain plots to kill hero, villain is foiled. Happy ending. Where is the problem? The problem is that Shakespeare does not treat Shylock as simply evil for evil's sake. He makes him human. He has good reason to resent Antonio. He says:

    "You call me misbeliever, cutthroat dog,
     and spit upon my Jewish gabardine,
     and all for use of that which is mine own." (I,iii,112ff)

    "I am a Jew. Hath not a Jew eyes?
     Hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions,
     senses, affections, passions?
     fed with the same food, hurt with the same weapons,
     subject to the same diseases, healed by the same means,
     warmed and cooled by the same winter and summer,
         as a Christian is?
     If you prick us, do we not bleed?
     If you tickle us, do we not laugh?
     If you poison us, do we not die?
     and if you wrong us, shall we not revenge?" (III,i,50ff)

Another wrong is suddenly added to the list. His daughter is all he has in the world, and she is talked into running off. He hears a report that, while traveling through a distant city, she has spied a monkey that she fancied, and used a ring to purchase it. His comment: "That ring--I had it of Leah (his wife) when I was a bachelor. I would not have given it for a wilderness of monkeys!" To him, the ring stands for the bonds of affection and loyalty that ought to unite a family. It stands for what he has received from the past. But thanks to Antonio and his friends, his only daughter (like Esau trading his birthright for a mess of pottage--Genesis 25:29-34) has learned to despise her heritage and to throw it away for a trifle. And he is cut to the heart. These scenes simply do not fit comfortably into an anti-Jewish play. It might be well to omit them. But the need to ignore part of your data to save your theory is always a danger sign.

Approach Number Two is to treat this as an anti-Christian play. Shylock is despised and persecuted for being a money-lender. But the Christians are happy to have him around when they need to borrow money. It is when the time comes to repay that they complain. When the law appears to be on the side of the Jew, Portia is eloquent in speaking of the beauties of Mercy, but when the shoe is on the other foot, it is cold mercy indeed that she and the other Christians have to offer Shylock. The play is full of passing references to the hypocrisy of Christians. Bassanio says in court, that he would gladly sacrifice his own life to save Antonio's. So? He has a dagger in his belt, and he is only a few feet away from Shylock. He has only to draw his blade, stab Shylock, and hang for murder. Again, as Shylock points out, the Christians of Venice have slaves. If they are so enamored of mercy, why do they not free their slaves? Again, we may contrast Portia's courtesy to her unsuccessful suitors with her ridicule of them behind their backs. And so on. Yes, it would be a pleasure to do this as an anti-Christian play. unsecured loans

But with this interpretation, the whole final scene at Belmont is a problem. It is full of moonlight and roses, and lovers reunited. Everything about it moves us to rejoice with the newly-wedded. If we are full of indignation at the cruel way that the Christians treated Shylock in the preceding scene, how do we react to the final scene? Do we simply wipe our memories clean and rejoice in the happiness of the oppressors? Or are we supposed to boo at them throughout the garden scene, and take the whole thing as ironical? Once again, the scene simply does not fit. Perhaps we should cut it altogether....

But there is a Third Approach. Throughout the play, but particularly in the trial scene, we are told that the issue is one of Justice and Mercy.

Shylock, the Jew, is the spokesman for Justice. He will have what is his by right, under the law, under the terms of the contract that Antonio freely negotiated with him, under the terms of the natural right of a wronged man to seek a just retribution for his wrongs. Portia, the Christian, is the spokesman for Mercy, freely given, not because of the worthiness of the receiver, but because of the generosity of the giver.
Now, every educated Christian in Shakespeare's day knew that Justice and Mercy are both attributes of God, and every educated Christian had been taught to associate the Old Testament with Justice and the New with Mercy. The word of God to His people through Moses was: "Keep my laws and you will live. Break them and you will die." (See Deuteronomy 30:15-20) The problem was that no one kept the Law perfectly. (See Psalm 19:12) But the word of God in Christ is: "Be of good cheer--your sins are forgiven." (See M 9:2 = P 2:5 = L 5:20) The epistles of Paul are full of passages that contrast Law and Grace, and that associate Law with the Synagogue and Grace with the Church.

But Justice and Mercy are not simply contrasted--they are reconciled. In the poem Piers Plowman, written in the late 1300's, the issue of God's pardoning the sinner while still satisfying the demands of Justice is argued out (Passus B XVIII) by four characters known as the four Daughters of God: Mercy and Peace on the one side, and Truth and Righteousness on the other. They get their names from Psalm 85:10. "Mercy and truth will meet; peace and righteousness will kiss." The same four characters appear in The Castle of Perseverance, a play written in the early 1400's. In the play, Man has died, and his soul is on trial. Righteousness and Truth demand his damnation as the only just verdict. Mercy and Peace plead the Incarnation, and Man is accordingly saved.

Thus, an audience in Shakespeare's day would be familiar with the idea that Justice and Mercy are both good things, both attributes of God, and that the apparent conflict between them finds its resolution in the Incarnation, in the perfect obedience of the Son which satisfies the demands of Justice, in the blood of Christ which cleanses us from sin. They would be open to the idea that Shylock's insistence on Justice is a commitment to a good thing, and is to be honored as far as it goes, but that it is defective in that it fails to take one thing into account--the blood of Christ. And they would be familiar with the presentation of these ideas in the form of a trial, with prosecution and defense. And in the end, Justice is not simply put out of court. It is reconciled with Mercy. Shylock is to be baptized. The Law itself is to be made Christian. Thus, the final scene in the garden at Belmont is simply the triumphant conclusion of the trial scene. Here we see Jessica and Lorenzo, Jew and Christian, united in love and marriage, and talking about music, Shakespeare's customary symbol of harmony.

Some readers may object that they do not see any reconciliation in the Trial Scene. Shylock is not brought into harmony with the Christians. He is simply converted at sword-point. Back of this objection, in most cases, is the notion that any religion is acceptable to God if sincerely held. The Elizabethans did not, for the most part, think in those terms. They interpreted quite straightforwardly the words of Christ: "No one comes to the Father except through Me." (J 14:5) Some theologians of the period may argue for an implicit acceptance of the Gospel, but the popular view is that Shylock baptized has some sort of chance of salvation, while Shylock unbaptized has none at all. We may be uncomfortable at the idea of Shylock's distress at being forced to give up his unfamiliar way of life, but what an Elizabethan playgoer would see is that Shylock has endeavored to take away Antonio's earthly life, and that Antonio has responded by doing all in his power to bestow on Shylock life and joy unending. bad credit loans

At this point the reader may be restless and want to ask: "Are you saying that the characters in the play are not to be thought of as real persons at all, but only as symbols, as stand-ins for various theological concepts? Ought Antonio helpy the audience out by wearing a placard reading, Mankind, while Shylock is labelled Justice, and Portia Mercy, and the Duke God? If so, then what is on Nerissa's placard, or on Bassanio's, or Jessica's, or Lorenzo's?"

Rest assured that I am not arguing for the play as an allegory in that sense. It is not that Justice and Mercy are acting out their functions on stage unded the aliases of Shylock and Portia, but that Shylock and Portia, considered as actual humans, by being what they are, exemplify the themes of Justice and Mercy and their respective claims.