Iona Bain

Spare a thought for Mrs McClafferty & Co. Like thousands of small business owners, she has spent years managing things the old-fashioned way: jotting down figures in a Silvine cash book, stuffing receipts into a shoebox and sorting it all out when the tax return comes around. But according to HMRC, taxpayers like her are partly responsible for a £24 billion black hole in UK tax receipts. Which means the taxman is coming for them. If you are self-employed and had an income of more than £50,000 last year, get ready for Making Tax Digital (MTD). From 6 April, you will have to file an income and expenses update four times a year, then an adjustment, then the annual return. You must use HMRC-approved software to do it all.

The inflation tiger is roaring. Older people can hear it. How about younger ones? Inflation could, after all, be the biggest blow to their finances in their lifetime. They don’t seem hugely concerned. According to polling by GfK, Generation Z is totally ‘chill’ about inflation. Older generations, meanwhile, are scarred by the last inflation spiral of the 1970s — a brown-tinged decade of power cuts, unemployment and grim donkey jackets. To younger people, that’s ancient history. Growing up in an era where inflation has averaged 2 per cent, they’d be forgiven for zoning out when they hear ‘back in the day…’ or when news reports reveal that inflation has spiked to 4.2 per cent — a peak not seen since November 2011.