On 23 September 2022, Kwasi Kwarteng, the new Chancellor (the fifth in as many years) delivered a Tax Cutting “Fiscal Event” or Mini-Budget to help boost economic growth. This was in line with promises made by the new Prime Minister Liz Truss when she was campaigning to be elected as new leader of the Conservative […]

The normal budget process is for the Office of Budget Responsibility (OBR) to report on the state of the UK economy at the time of the Budget and also assess the impact of the Budget proposals. As there was insufficient time for a full OBR report, the Chancellor’s statement was referred to as a “fiscal […]

It was on 7 September 2021 that we first heard about a new 1.25% Health and Social Care Levy, imposed on employers, employees and the self-employed, coming in from 2023/24. Further, this was to be effectively accelerated into 2022/23 by a 1.25 percentage point rise in National Insurance contributions (NICs). As expected, and despite changes […]

Many director/shareholders of family companies pay themselves a small salary and take the rest of their “pay” in dividends. With dividends being free of NIC, this would have allowed them to avoid the extra 1.25% NIC charge when it was originally introduced. Consequently, the Government added 1.25% to the dividend income tax rates for 2022/23. […]

The previous Chancellor, Rishi Sunak, had dangled a possible cut in the basic rate of income tax from 20% to 19% from 2024/25. This will now be brought forward by one year to 2023/24 and will apply to non-dividend income. The 45% and 39.35% ‘additional rates’ of income tax that apply to income over £150,000 […]

In the March 2021 Budget, Rishi Sunak announced that the rate of corporation tax would increase to 25% from 1 April 2023 where a company’s profits exceeded £250,000 a year, with the current 19% rate continuing to apply where profits were no more than £50,000 a year. There was also scheduled to be an effective […]

Businesses investing in plant and machinery will welcome the decision to make the £1 million Annual Investment Allowance (AIA) permanent. This has been extended several times and was scheduled to revert to just £200,000 from April 2023. Unlike the super-deduction, the AIA is available to unincorporated businesses as well as limited companies and the equipment […]

The much criticised “off-payroll” working rules were introduced for the public sector from 6 April 2017 and then extended to large and medium-sized private-sector organisations from 6 April 2021. The rules replaced the ‘IR35’ rules where workers supplied their services to these organisations via a personal service company (PSC) or other intermediary. The effect was […]

The Government is in discussion with 38 local authority areas in England to set up ‘Investment Zones’ in specific sites within their area. Each Investment Zone (IZ) will offer generous, targeted and time limited tax cuts for businesses along with liberalised planning rules to release more land for housing and commercial development. These will be […]

The new Chancellor has given his support to the tax-advantaged Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS) and Venture Capital Trusts (VCT) and said he sees the value of extending them in the future. The vision is for the UK to be an entrepreneurial, share-owning democracy. In relation to the Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme (SEIS), the Treasury have […]