Our tax specialists are poised to closely follow the Chancellor’s Budget speech today, as well as the usual raft of supporting documents which will be released once the speech has finished.
A lot of changes have already been leaked this year including:
- An extension of the furlough scheme to the end of September, maintained at the current level but phasing out from July.
- Further grants for the self-employed, including an indication that more recent tax data can now be used, potentially bringing those who started to work for themselves after 5 April 2019 into the scheme at last.
- Some further specific sector support, so far for sports, hospitality, the arts.
- A return of the “help to buy” scheme to assist individuals obtaining mortgages with only 5% deposits.
- Free management training courses for firms – “Help to Grow”.
The post Budget documents will reveal the finer details behind the above as well as any additional changes. We consider it unlikely that there will be many tax rises just yet, although it does seem quite likely that Corporation Tax may be increased in stages over the remainder of this Parliament. We are also likely to see some changes to Capital Gains Tax and potentially Inheritance Tax, although this is more likely to take the form of tightening up some of the reliefs rather than headline rate changes.
There is also a good chance that the Stamp Duty Land Tax holiday may be extended – we would like to see this being phased out rather than having a “cliff edge” end to the holiday which could cause many property transactions to be aborted or to distort the market.
Finally, keep an eye out for “Tax Day” on 23rd March, when a variety of proposals and consultations will be launched in terms of longer term tax reform, and potential increases in tax to claw back the cost of the pandemic for the UK.
Stay tuned to the Randall & Payne Twitter feed from 12.30pm onwards to keep up-to-date as matters unfold. We will be summarising what is announced along with some insights this afternoon.
