Did Jeremy Hunt’s Spring Budget turn heads and voters in an election year? Or was it the calm before a biblical storm?
The Spring Budget is done for another year. The cat’s out of the bag. But did Jeremy Hunt manage to pull a rabbit out of the hat?
‘Permanent cuts in taxation’ were promised. In many cases, they were delivered. But most of the announcements, bar a select few we’ve covered below, had already been wrung out by the rumour mill. And in an election year that looks increasingly iffy for the Chancellor and his Conservative party, will they be enough?
Like a head teacher breaking up a lunchtime food fight, Dame Eleanor Laing tried her damnedest to maintain some semblance of “order” in the Commons. And the plus side of a largely unshocking Budget, is not too many people got a pie in the face.
As always, there were some key announcements for businesses and individuals to note. We’ve put together our summary of the biggest changes in the 2024 Spring Budget below.
Take a look through. Then, later this week, we’ll be releasing our full Budget Booklet, taking a deeper dive into the changes, their impacts, and what you should be doing next.
As always, if you have any questions or concerns following the Chancellor’s announcements, don’t hesitate to let us know.
LOOKING FOR THE DETAIL?
Click here to read our full Spring Budget summary.
Highlights for businesses
- The VAT registration threshold is increasing from £85,000 to £90,000 from 1 April 2024, while the threshold to determine deregistration will increase from £83,000 to £88,000.
- Main rate of corporation tax and small profits to be held at 25% and 19% respectively.
- Following the Autumn Statement’s “full expensing” tax relief for businesses making capital investments in the UK, a consultation will be held on extending it to leased assets.
- £120m allocated to green industries to develop technologies including offshore windfarms and carbon capture and storage projects.
- The freeze on alcohol duty has been extended until February 2025.
- Film studios in England given 40% relief on their gross business rates until 2034, and plans for a new tax credit unveiled for independent films with budgets below £15m.
Highlights for individuals
- National Insurance will be cut by 2p from 6 April 2024, from 10% down to 8%, in addition to the 2% cut that came in 6 January 2024. Estimates suggest the latest cut will be worth around £450 a year for someone on a £35,000 full-time salary.
- Self-employed National Insurance will also decrease by 2p, from 8% to 6%.
- New ‘UK ISA’ to be introduced, allowing an additional £5k for investment into UK assets, in addition to the existing £20k ISA allowance.
- A 5p cut in fuel duty will continue for another year.
- High Income Child Benefit Charge threshold increased from £50,000 to £60,000 a year. The top of the taper will increase to £80,000 from £60,000 too. The government will also consult on changing the system to assess household income, rather than individual incomes, from April 2026.
- Higher rate of residential property capital gains tax reduced from 28% to 24%. The lower rate remains at 18%.
- ‘Non-dom’ tax regime scrapped from April 2025 and replaced by a residency-based regime, impacting UK residents whose home is overseas for tax purposes.
- Stamp duty relief for those with multiple dwellings to be axed for transactions with an effective date on or after 1 June 2024.
- Tax breaks for furnished holiday let owners to be abolished from April 2025.
- £3.4bn upgrade of NHS computer systems announced, with a further £2.5bn invested to meet “pressures in the coming year”.
- National Savings & Investment will launch a new British Saving Bond with a 3 year fixed interest rate.
We’ll also be discussing the announcements and all the topics that should be on your radar at our FD Seminars in the East Midlands and Birmingham, as well as our Finance Think Tank event in London.
Find out more and secure your place here.
