Spring Budget Summary

Following last weeks Budget, please see below our summary which may be of interest to you.

Economy
• Inflation set to fall to 0.2% this year
• Unemployment rate set to fall to 5.3% this year (now at 5.7%)
• Welfare bills set to be an average of £3 billion lower each year than estimated in the Autumn Statement
• Treasury to sell at least a further £9 billion of Lloyds Bank shares in the coming year
• Borrowing forecast for this year revised downwards to £90.2 billion, then £75.3 billion in 2015/16

Taxation
• Personal tax-free allowance is set to rise from £10,600 in 2015-16 to £10,800 2016-17 and then to £11,000 in 2017-18- cutting for 27 million people
• Higher tax rate threshold will rise from £42,385 this year to £43,300 by 2017-18
• From April, Corporation Tax for businesses making profit in excess of £300,000 will reduce to 20%
• New criminal penalties for tax evasion (including advisers) • Annual Paper tax returns to be scrapped completely
• Death of the tax return – Annual self-assessment return to be replaced by individual tax accounts
• Transferable tax allowance for married couples at 10% of personal allowance to be £1,100 by 2017
• To support five million people who are self-employed, Class 2 National Insurance Contributions to be abolished entirely from next year, and Class 4 contributions are to include a new benefit test
• National Insurance Contributions (NIC) to be abolished for employing under 21s
• Accountants and tax advisers working with contractors will be subject to new anti-avoidance legislation
• Clampdown on Umbrella companies using travel & expenses to increase contractor take home pay to be detailed in the small print

Oil & Gas sector
• £1.3bn tax breaks and support for North Sea oil and gas
• Petroleum tax reduced from 50% to 35% and supplementary tax cut from 30% to 20%
• Introduction of a new Investment Allowance Further reduction to the supplementary tax charge on oil and gas companies

Duties
• Fuel duty will be frozen again for 2015
• Beer duty cut by 1p
• Cider and spirit duty cut by 2%
• Wine duty frozen

More Posts

Basis Period Reform

The article helps self-employed sole traders and partnerships to understand how basis period reform will impact their business in the 2023/24 transitional tax year, and what steps need to be taken to ensure they do not lose any brought forward tax reliefs and remain compliant!

George Ian Hope

Tax Payment Dates and Estimating the Values of Tax Payable

The article outlines the typical tax payment dates and methods of estimating the values of tax payable for each type of tax, including VAT, PAYE, NIC, CIS, Corporation Tax, and Dividend and Personal Taxes.

George Ian Hope

Corporation Tax Rate Changes

In the March 2021 Budget Rishi Sunak proposed a number of changes to the way that Corporation Tax will be calculated and applied and these changes will come into effect from 1st April 2023.

George Ian Hope