Highlights Of The Year 2015

Here are our picks of the business news and highlights of the year 2015:

Summary

- US interest rates set to rise by 0.25% following December announcement.

- Chinese economy slows down to just under 7% growth.

- Drop in commodity prices, with oil and copper both down by more than 30%.

- The oil price continued to drop throughout the year. Prices end the year below $40.

- UK Budget announcements include significant changes to the taxation of dividends from April 2016.

- Small business owners and Limited Company Contractors will face higher taxes on dividends to reduce the tax differential of operating via a Limited company compared to self employment.

- Buy to let landlords will face increased tax charges following restrictions on mortgage interest relief and removal of wear and tear allowance from April 2016.

- 2015 has seen a visible rise in contractor rates in Q4, particularly in the IT sector. The rate increases are set to exceed the rise in taxes and inflation anticipated in 2016. If you have not reviewed your rate you should do so soon.

December 2015

- The Fed’s Janet Yellen announces that US interest rates will increase to 0.25%, representing the first interest rate rise in almost 10 years.

- The sharp drop in commodity prices has led to miner Anglo American announcing it would close up to 35 mines with 85,000 staff reductions.

-  Glencore to cut thousands of workers in its mines, with heavy cuts in Zambia.

- Supermarket chain Morrisons dropped out of the FTSE100 following a continued decline in its share price in 2015.

- China ends its one child policy.

- Turmoil continues in Brazil with the Brazilian Real down 30% against Sterling since the beginning of the year.

- Anglo American ends the year as the worst performer in the FTSE100 with shares down 78% in 2015.

November 2015

- UK Chancellor George Osborne announced his Autumn Statement which targets buy to let landlords with 3% additional stamp duty on second homes.

- Engine manufacturer Rolls Royce issues fifth profit warning in 20 months due to difficult market conditions.

- Global Mergers & Acquisitions transactions hit an all time high in November 2015.

- AB InBev acquires Sab Miller for $107 billion in a combination of the world’s biggest brewers.

October 2015

- Deloitte overtakes PWC as world’s largest global accountancy firm.

- Glencore share price plummets 30% in one day due to concerns over heavy debt and the decline in global commodity prices.

- Dell acquires EMC for £67 billion in largest acquisition deal in tech history.

September 2015

- Fed announces that interest rates will not be raised as initially planned due to fears over the fragility of the global economy.

- Mario Draghi announces that the ECB will commence quantitative easing to boost the flailing Eurozone economy.

- Fears over slowdown in China impacts global markets. Global stocks plummeted by 30% on Black Monday.

-Volkswagen shares drop by more than 30% after the company admitted to rigging emissions tests with the regulator.

- Falling commodity prices have led to Glencore shares dropping to an all time low of £68, down 77% since the beginning of the year.

- Google restructures its business and now operates under a new parent company called Alphabet.

- Budget changes result in rise in contract rates for IT consultants.

August 2015

- FTSE 100 dropped 6% with £56 billion wiped off the index on 24 August 2015, Black Monday.

- Chinese stockmarket drops 22% shortly after news of the devaluation

- China changed the method of measuring its currency resulting in an effective devaluation of 3% against the US Dollar. This represents the largest currency devaluation of the yuan in 20 years.

- Oil price falls below $48.

- Bank of England announce that interest rates to remain at 0.5%.

- Pearson Group sells the Financial Times to Japanese business publisher Nikkei for £844m. A 50% stake in the Economist is sold for £469m.

July 2015

- Chinese stockmarket crashes 30% and trading subsequently suspended.

- Greece agrees terms with IMF for €86 billion bailout. The terms were less favourable than those rejected by the public in the referendum. Greek banks reopened to the public for the first time in three weeks.

- Sweden follows Denmark by introducing negative interest rates in 2015.

June 2015

- Greece risks defaulting on its loans to the ECB and the IMF which are due for repayment at the end of the month. Greek banks suspended trading for a week and an emergency referendum was held over the weekend to approve the terms of the proposed bailout. The public voted NO to austerity and finance minister Yanis Varoufakis resigns the next day.

- The UK economy is reported to have fallen into deflation in April 2015 for the first time in over 50 years.

- Amazon’s market cap surges past $300 billion and now exceeds that of bricks and mortar supermarket Wal Mart following the ongoing rise in online retail.

May 2015

- The Conservative Party led by David Cameron wins majority in UK general elections.

April 2015

- Royal Dutch Shell announces $70 billion acquisition of BG Group to create the largest company in the FTSE 100.

- Tesco reports loss of £6.4 billion, the largest loss in FSE history.

March 2015

- Chancellor announces 2015 Budget. Key changes include removal of the Dividend tax credit from April 2016, to be replaced with a tax free allowance of £5,000.

- Corporation tax set to reduce to 18% by 2020.

- FTSE reaches all time high breaching the 7,000 barrier.

- Sterling strengthens significantly against the Euro to a rate of 1.4 due to effects of quantitative easing in the EU.

- Strong US employment figures prompts speculation that interest rates could rise.

February 2015

- Uncertainty in the financial markets as Athens and its creditors determine the future of Greece and the Eurozone

- The Bank of England indicates that interest rates to be held due to deflation expectations

- Apple reported the largest quarterly net profit in history, making $18 billion in Q4 2014.

January 2015

- The Euro suffered a sharp decline following news that the Swiss National Bank dropped the franc’s peg to the Euro.

- The European Central Bank launches €60bn a month QE programme to boost the eurozone economy and counter deflation.

- Energy, exploration and engineering companies expected to suffer from drop in the oil price to $50 per barrel.

- New place of supply rules introduced from 1 January 2015 for electronic services via the VAT MOSS scheme (mini one stop shop).

- Adoption of FRS102 compulsory for accounting periods beginning 1 January 2015.