Pre-election Budgets tend to be full of political posturing and understandably very little tax reform or significant change. With a general election ahead of us, there was certainly more political posturing than normal in the Chancellor’s statement.
Much was made of the economic turnaround and I’ll leave you to decide whether that was due to government policies or macro-economic factors.
Here are some of the key changes that were announced:
• A reduction in employee's Class 1 NIC from 10% to 8% on earnings between £12,570 and £50,270 and from 8% to 6% for the self-employed.
• The capital gains tax rate on the sale of residential property will be reduced from 28% to 24%.
• The abolishment of the Furnished Holiday Lettings regime, removing the tax reliefs and advantages.
• The VAT registration threshold will be increased from £85,000 to £90,000.
• The non-domicile regime will be abolished and replaced with a residency based system.
• Consultation on changes to the High Income Child Benefit Charge with the threshold increasing from £50,000 to £60,000 from 6 April 2024.
• Enhanced reliefs and incentives for the creative industries, including film, TV and theatre businesses.
• Consultations on improving investment in British businesses with pension freedoms, a British Savings Bond and an additional £5,000 British ISA allowance.
• Full expensing for capital expenditure has been extended to include leased assets.
• A Public Sector Productivity Plan with investment in technology and efficiency improvements.
Please get in touch if you would like to discuss the changes in more detail and understand their impact on you.
