Today, George Osborne delivered his eight budget, and below we have a summary of the key announcements:
Outlook
- The UK Economy is strong, growing and resilient
- There are storm clouds gathering over the Global Economy
- The UK Economy will grow by 2% this year, 2.2% in 2017, and then 2.1% in 2018, 2019 and 2020
- This represents a downward revision of previous forecasts
- Forecasting another 1million jobs created in this Parliament
Spending
- Changes to the Disability budget
- Further spending cuts of £3.5bn by 2020
Personal taxation
- Tax free personal allowance to rise to £11,500 from April 2017
- Higher rate tax threshold to increase from £42,385 to £45,000 from April 2017
- Capital Gains Tax to be cut at the higher rate from 28% to 20%, and from 18% to 10% for basic rate tax payers
Pensions and Savings
- The annual limit for savings into an ISA to rise from £15,000 to £20,000
- New Lifetime ISA for the under 40’s, with Government putting in £1 for every £4 saved up to a maximum of £4,000 per annum
- New stated-backed savings scheme for low paid workers
Business taxes
- Corporation tax to fall to 17% by 2020 (currently 20% but due to reduce to 19% in 2017)
- Small business tax relief to be raised from £6,000 to £15,000
- Introduction of commercial stamp duty rates – 0% on purchases up to £150,000, 2% on next £100,000 and 5% above £250,000
- Use of Personal Service Companies by Public Sector employees to reduce tax – to end
Education and Health
- New sugar levy on the soft drinks industry
- Plan for all schools in England to become acedemies by 2022
- Plans for all pupils to study Maths until aged 18
Further commentary will follow on some of the above items.
If you have any questions in the meantime, please feel free to contact AJ Accountancy by calling 01234 713151 / 07799 398555 or email andrew@aj-accountancy.co.uk
