bannerImage.png

Beyond the balance sheet

The Spring Statement and important changes for the new tax year

Edward Parker 15/3/2018 3 minute read

Edward Parker FCCA on the key things to watch out for following the Chancellor's Spring Statement.

The days of two Budget announcements per year with the Spring one described as a mini-Budget, are over. Instead the Spring Statement is now a short financial briefing and as promised, Chancellor Phillip Hammond proved true to his word. There were no surprise spending measures or tax announcements. This means there wasn't a great deal of news for businesses or individuals.

The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) trimmed its projections for government borrowing, but not by as much as had been expected. The Chancellor then banked the savings for the Autumn Budget while government spending will be subject to a detailed review in 2019.

Subscribe to our newsletter to keep up to date with the latest tax changes  and SME developments

 

The Chancellor's statement was followed by the publication of a range of documents covering the following areas:

English business rates

The next revaluation of business property in England will be brought forward from 2022 to 2021 with revaluations conducted over a three-yearly cycle thereafter.

Entrepreneurs' relief

A consultation paper was produced on entrepreneurs’ relief. This is for circumstances where it would otherwise be lost because a new share issue reduces a shareholding below the required 5% mark.

Tax and the digital economy

The government are examining taxation in relation to the digital economy. For some time there has been concern that people using online platforms aren't paying their fair share when it comes to VAT and income tax.

VAT threshold

The government is looking into restructuring the VAT registration threshold in order to offer more incentives for small businesses to grow. There is concern that businesses limit growth to avoid crossing the current £85,000 threshold (which is frozen for the next two years).

Potential options include increasing tax rates as turnover rises, or applying different rates for different types of business.

Self-funded work-related training

A consultation paper was published examining how to extend the existing tax relief framework to self-funded work-related training by employees and the self-employed. The reason being over 1 million people paid for their own training in 2016 according to HMRC.

The upcoming tax changes you need to be aware of

Many of these documents could be enacted in legislation, meanwhile the tax changes announced in the Autumn Budget 2017 (and some from earlier Budgets) will come into force in the new, 2018/19 tax year. Some of these include:

  • Increases to the personal allowance, and basic and higher rate tax thresholds
  • A reduction in the dividend tax allowance from £5,000 to £2,000
  • A rise in the diesel levy and changes to company car tax scales
  • For the first time in 8 years, an increase in the pension lifetime allowance
  • An increase in the maximum tax relievable investment in Enterprise Investment Schemes

Be sure to access and download our tables for the 2018/19 tax year. Finally, although it wasn't mentioned by the Chancellor, the government are digitising taxation which has profound implications for businesses and individuals. This requires a review of accounting systems and software with a view to switching to digital record keeping via the cloud. You can find out more here in how to best prepare for making tax digital

New Call-to-action

The content of this post is up to date and relevant as at 15/03/2018.

Please be aware that information provided by this blog is subject to regular legal and regulatory change. We recommend that you do not take any information held within our website or guides (eBooks) as a definitive guide to the law on the relevant matter being discussed. We suggest your course of action should be to seek legal or professional advice where necessary rather than relying on the content supplied by the author(s) of this blog.

 

leave a comment -

Popular posts

8 Key elements of a business plan you need to know
How to understand the different types of shares & class of shares
What are the different types of business structures in the UK? How to choose one