It will be interesting to see how the budget is received in the wider media, a lot of social media comment (a useful social barometer) has so far been on the negative side.
Here are some of the highlights:
- Corporation Tax Cut: it was 20% at the start of the parliament. By 2020 it will fall to 17%. "Britain is blazing a trail, let the rest of the world catch up," the Chancellor says.
- Business Rates Cut: a permanent increase to the threshold for business rates from £6,000 to £15,000 will benefit many small businesses. The higher rate will rise from £18,000 to £51,000. Over 600,000 small businesses will pay no business rates from next year.
- Insurance Premium Tax: only rising by 0.5% rather than the 3.0% that was mooted earlier in the day.
- Capital Gains Tax: current rates will be cut from 28% and 18% to 20% and 10% respectively, although it looks like the old rates may still apply to gains on property (so no bonus for beleaguered property investors). Entrepreneurs relief has also been left alone (for now), although relief on associated disposals has been extended.
- Income Tax: the personal allowance will rise to £11,500 and the higher rate band goes up to £45,000 too.
- National Insurance: Class 2 contributions are to be abolished.
There were however some not so welcome low points of the speech:
- Tax Avoidance Crackdown: The Chancellor announces a series of actions to tackle tax avoidance and evasion totaling £12bn, including moves to end the use of "personal service companies" by public sector employees to minimise their tax liabilities.
- Loans to Participators: the tax charged on loans to directors and shareholders of businesses will see the punitive tax charged from 25% to 32.5%.
Full details of the budget proposals can be found here:
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/budget-2016-tax-related-documents
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/budget-2016-tax-related-documents
