Mini Budget: The Key Announcements

On Friday 23rd September, the Chancellor announced a growth plan in the form of a mini-budget. Following this, we hosted a breakfast seminar to reflect on the announcements and policies made.

Key Headlines:

Income Tax - From April 2023

• The additional Dividend rate of 39.35% is to be scrapped
• Personal Savings allowance of £500 to be extended to taxpayers Earning in excess of £150,000, in line with higher rate taxpayers.
• The basic rate of income tax is to be cut to 19% from 20%
• A four-year transition period for Gift Aid relief to maintain the Income Tax basic rate relief at 20% until April 2027
  

NIC & National Insurance Levy

• National Insurance Levy of 1.25% planned from April 2023 to be canceled
• From 6 November 2023 Class 1 NIC rates are to be reduced to 12% for employers and 12% and 2% for employees negating the increase from April 2022.
• Class 1A & 1B NIC are to be reduced to 14.53% for the year to April 2023 and then 13.8% from April 2023.
• Class 4 NIC will be reduced to 9.73% and 2.73% for the 2022-23 tax year and 9% and 2% from April 2023.
• Class 1 NIC rates for annual employees, including directors, will be 12.73% and 2.73% for the 2022-23 tax year

Corporation Tax from 1 April 2023

• The government has now canceled this planned increase. Rather than rising to 25% from April 2023, the rate will remain at 19% for all firms, regardless of the amount of profit made.

Stamp Duty Land Tax from 23 September 2023

• The residential nil-rate tax threshold is to be increased from £125,000 to £250,000.
• The nil-rate threshold for First Time Buyers’ Relief is increased from £300,000 to £425,000 and the maximum amount that an individual can pay while remaining eligible for First Time Buyers’ Relief is increased to £625,000.

Investment Zones

• The SEIS limits have increased from April 2023.
  o The annual investor limit has been doubled to £200,000.
  o Companies will be able to raise up to £250,000 of SEIS investment, a two-thirds increase.
  o To enable more companies to use SEIS, the gross asset limit will be increased to £350,000 and the age limit from 2 to 3 years.
• The company share option plan (CSOP) limit that allows businesses to offer employees share options is being raised from £30,000 to £60,000 from April 2023

IR35 Reform

• IR35 off-payroll working rules introduced in 2017 and 2021 are to be repealed from April 2023.

VAT

• Tourists visiting the UK will be able to benefit from VAT-free shopping.

Please visit https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-growth-plan-2022-documents for more details.