Investments and tax pick up the pace in the weekend’s money sections

Investment stories regained their spot at the top of the leaderboard this week, accounting for 26 per cent of the total coverage, up from 15 per cent last week. Tax saw a big hike in coverage this week, rising to 13 per cent, up from just 5 per cent last week.

In the Sunday Times, Ali Hussain looked at some of the best buying opportunities for equity Isas now that investors have turned cautious following concerns over the Middle East and Japan. The piece suggests, among other things, Spain and more specifically, the Ignis Argonaut European Income fund. Also focusing on Isas was the Independent (@TheIndyNews) which looked at what experts were investing in. Patrick Connolly at AWD Chase de Vere favours Western economies as they are more likely to benefit from global economic growth, and mentioned Ignis Argonaut European Alpha as a potential home for his money.

In other investment news, the FT Weekend (@ftmoney) looked at retailers who are offering incentives to investors to buy their shares. The piece mainly focused on the new retail bond from John Lewis Partnership which offers 6.5 per cent split between cash return and gift vouchers . The piece goes on to say that we should expect to see other retailers following John Lewis’s lead and begin to issue bonds.

Moving on to tax, and in the Mail on Sunday, Jeff Prestridge (@jeffprestridge) looked at Venture Capital Trusts, noting that they may be risky but the attractive array of tax breaks makes them too good to ignore for higher-rate taxpayers. However, there are fears that these could be scrapped in the budget next week.

The Sunday Times also looked at tax, specifically how you can shelter up to £1 million by ‘stacking’ the tax reliefs available on a variety of investment vehicles. And finally, the FT Weekend looked at how savers expecting to fall into the 40 per cent income tax bracket when the threshold is reduced can preserve their gains for another year. If they act now, they can ensure their savings accounts pay them interest before the end of the tax year so that this income will only be taxed at basic rate.

And the rest of the scores on the board are as follows: