Jeremy Hunt, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, has delivered his Spring Budget, and we wanted to keep you informed about what has just been announced.
We’ll provide more detailed insight over the coming days, but for now, here are the main headlines.
Taxes
- Employee National Insurance to be cut from 10% to 8% from April.
- Self-Employed National Insurance to be cut from 8% to 6% from April.
- Non-dom tax regime to be scrapped and reformed, with new rules being introduced in April 2025. Under the new system, new UK arrivals will not have to pay any tax on foreign income and gains for the first four years of UK residency.
- Higher rate of Capital Gains Tax on property to be cut from 28% to 24%.
- Tax breaks which make it more profitable for second home owners to let properties out to holidaymakers rather than long-term tenants to be scrapped.
- Stamp duty relief for people buying multiple properties in one transaction to be scrapped.
- Air passenger duty for business class flights to go up.
- High income child benefit charge threshold to be increased from £50,000 to £60,000.
Pensions and savings
- A £5,000 “British ISA” tax allowance to be introduced, enabling the public to invest in UK-listed businesses.
- New British Savings Bonds offering savers a guaranteed rate for 3 years.
- Commitment to exploring a lifetime provider model for Defined Contribution (DC) pension schemes in the long-term.
- Pensions triple lock to be maintained.
Living costs
- Fuel duty frozen for another year.
- Alcohol duty freeze extended until February 2025.
- Excise duty on vaping products from October 2026.
- A one-off increase in tobacco duty to maintain the “financial incentive” to pick vaping over smoking.
- £90 fee to obtain a debt relief order abolished.
Businesses
- Amount businesses can earn before registering to pay VAT to be raised from £85,000 to £90,000.
- Full expensing tax break for businesses to be extended to leased assets when economic conditions allow.
- Windfall tax on the profits of energy firms extended until 2029.
Economy
- The OBR expects inflation to fall below the Bank of England’s 2% target in “just a few months time”.
- UK economy predicted to grow by 0.8% in 2024 and 1.9% in 2025. This will be followed by growth of 2% in 2026, 1.8% in 2027 and 1.7% in 2028.
