I understand that Barak Obama has decided to take his Christmas break in Hawaii and therefore postpone decisions to avoid the Fiscal Cliff.  Evidence shows that the republicans are tiring of their own politicians views so maybe it is a good idea to have a beathing space before the deadline of 1st January.  As usual this will go to the wire but be resolved at the last minute.

We are closing the office from today 21st December until Monday January 7th.  Diane and Paul  are taking an extended holiday in Kenya with the family.

We wish all our clients a very Happy Christmas and a Prosperous New Year.

Diane has passed the STEP (Society of Tax and Estate Practitioners)  Certificate in Financial Services Trust and Estates examination following a sitting in November.

The full summary can be found in the Articles and Newsletter section.

Important points were than the usual allowances have been increased this year wiht the personal allowance increasing to £9440 from April 2013

Other significant points were that the limit for pension drawdown has been reinstated to 120% of GAD rather than the reduced 100%.

The maximum contribution to a pension will be reduced to £40,000 in April 2014 and lifetime allowance will be reduced to £1.25 million from April 2014. Some form of protection is likely to be available for those who might breach this level in their lifetime. This is likley to involve a further restriction in contributions.

Some help was available for businesses wiht a reduction in corporation tax from 24% t0 21% in 2014.

The 'nil rate band' for Inheritance Tax is to be raised to £390,000 but not until 2015.

Meetings over the weekend with the various Greek policitcal parties have failed to come up with an agreement. Could this lead to Greece exiting the Eurozone or Grexit as the Financial Times has called it. There seems to be a fundamental mismatch with the left wing Alexis Tspiras getting most of the popular vote with his policy of demanding a reversal of salary and pension cuts imposed by the bailout plus the hiring of 100,000 new public sector workers to reduce unemployment.

He is young and Charismatic but will no doubt soon realise that money is needed for his proposals and the only place to get it is from the Eurozone bailout which will not provide it under these circumstances. He seems to think that Greece will not be forced out of the Eurozone because of the potential knock on effects for the rest of the PIIGS Portugal Italy Ireland and Spain.

It is now almost certain that Greece will need to have another election in June.

The Financial Times are doing a special series on Greece at the moment. Tomorrow

'What would be the impact of a Greek exit on the Financial Markets.

Greece today gives the centre left party a chance to form a coalition after, Alex Tspiras of the Syriza party which came second in the elections presented a five point plan for Greece to abandon the bailout yesterday but could not get Parliament to agree.

Evangelos Venizelos of the Panhellenic Socialist Party has been given three days to try to form a government.

It becomes more and more likely that there will be fresh Elections on June 17th.

The Eurozone Stability fund has agreed to disburse €4.2bn of a planned payout of €5.2bn programme

Wolfgang Schaube, Germany's Finance minister said that only Athens could decide if Greece remained in the currency bloc.

Angela Merkel insisted that she wished Greece to remain a member.

To be contuinued

We have seen some intensive battles in the round of annual general meetings in public companies. Shareholders in Aviva managed to vote against the pay deal for executives and shareholders at William Hill, the bookmaker. Two other high profile chief executives, Sly Bailey at Trinity Mirror and David Brennan from AstraZeneca have also had to step down.

The only problem with this is the severance packages are also over generous. Mr Moss from Aviva will be entitled to his salary for this year £960,000 provided he doesn't take another job for 12 months ( not a bad sum for a sabatical!). In addition he will receive £300,000 in lieu of this year's bonus, £209,000 pension-related payment and £45,000 for 'legal and outplacement' expenses. He will also be entitled to 75% of his 2009 annual bonus worth £240,000. Under his control the Aviva share price has dropped 60%

Some way to go before the issue of ridiculous executive pay is brought under control!

The government have had a bruising month starting with non existent fuel shortages, a bugdet which introduced granny tax and pasty tax and confusion over hot and cold food. Almost as good as the argument about whether Jaffa cakes were a cake (no VAT) or a chocolate covered biscuit (VAT).

Now we have local elections and the coalition is expecting a big swing to Labour. We shall see.

Following the damming statement from a parliamentary committee that Rupert Murdoch was 'not a fit person to exercise stewardship of a major international company' the board voiced full confidence in him to remain as the CEO of the company.

Campaigners have criticised the governance of News Corp where the share structure gives the Murdoch family 40% of the votes.

The last few weeks have taken a toll on the portfolio with many of the gains made up until 20th March wiped out.

The loss of confidence in the markets at the beginning of the week saw the portfolio briefly drop below £4,000.

By the beginning of this week it was still at £3999 but luckily the last two days have meant that it has risen to £4044 so we are back in positive territory. The global markets have been responsible for the drop, continuing worries about China and India and the effect of the European troubles on these markets.

Francois Hollande's good showing in the first round of the French Election spooked the markets at the beginning of the week, only the second time since the republic began when a socialist has made such progress. As things stand at the moment it looks as though Monsieur Hollande will succeed.

Then we shall see. He is right that the European countries should concentrate on growth rather than austerity but quite where this growth is to come from is unlcear.

My portfolio was valued at £4179.95 at the close of business on 19th March. This was after a drawback in Scottish Oriental and Templeton Emerging Markets.

City of London and Finsbury Growth and Income are making steady progress and Scottish Mortgage has almost made up the initial costs.

Apparently I am in second place in the competition and go to Citwire for a video on Investment Trusts next week.