At what was likely to be the last fiscal event before the General Election, we expected a few surprises to be dropped in to woo the voters, although most of these were let out of the bag over the weekend in what seemed to be the most briefed budget ever known. But with so many references to digitization, AI and drones, it may also have been the most technologically advanced budget!

The big tax giveaway was a further reduction to the rate of national insurance and to help families further, we had a long overdue attempt to correct the high income child benefit charge provisions… read more here

Property was a hot topic with a reduction in the higher rate of capital gains tax applying to residential properties, removal of the relief applying to multiple dwellings for stamp duty land tax purposes and the abolition of the furnished holiday letting regime… read more here

In the spirit of getting rid of things, we had the announcement to abolish the non-dom tax regime – a big steal from the opposition on a policy they have put forward, the benefit of which they would spend differently… read more here

From a business perspective, real mainstream tax measures were few and far between – the VAT registration threshold was increased to £90,000 (although with inflation over recent years, this is neither here nor there), the reduction in national insurance for the self-employed and some tweaking around the edges for some corporation tax reliefs available to theatres, orchestras, museums and galleries.

But in reality, what does this all mean? Yes, we have a couple of changes which will take effect from 6 April 2024, but for others, who knows who will be in power in twelve months time and whether those other announcements will ever actually come into effect.

In the meantime, all we can do is wait. Wait for the growth in the economy, wait for the date of the General Election… oh, and wait for Tax Administration and Maintenance Day, for another bundle of documents, the content of which may never come into force!

If you would like to discuss this in further detail, please get in touch with your usual contact or e-mail us at experts@tacs.co.uk.