Following the delivery of the Budget earlier this week, we have summarised the key announcements below. If you would like to discuss any of the below and its practical implications for you and your business, please get in touch.

Personal Tax Bands and National Minimum Wage

Personal Allowance – will remain the same at £12,500 and the higher rate threshold will also remain at £50,000.
The additional tax rate threshold will remain at £150,000.
Capital gains tax annual exemption will increase to £12,300 (from £12,000) in April 2020.
National Insurance – the threshold for paying National Insurance will rise at 6 April 2020 to £9,500 (from £8,632).
Entrepreneurs Relief – from 11 March 2020 the rate of relief has been reduced to £1 million (previously £10 million).
The National Living Wage for workers aged over 25 will rise to £8.72 from April 2020 (currently £8.21).

Pensions

Pension Relief – the annual allowance for payments into personal pensions remains at £40,000 per tax year, and the lifetime allowance for pension savings increases to £1,073,100 on 6 April (previously £1,055,000).
The tapered annual allowance rules will now only begin to apply for those who have an income above £240,000 – the £200,000 allowance plus the £40,000 you can save into a pension, an increase from £150,000.
However, the minimum annual allowance has been reduced to £4,000 from £10,000, but only affects those with an income over £300,000.

Corporation Tax

The main rate of Corporation Tax remains at 19% for 2020/2021, with plans to cut the rate to 17% delayed.

Other Business Taxes

The Annual Investment Allowance was increased for qualifying investment in plant and machinery from £200,000 to £1,000,000 from 1 January 2019 for two years. From 1 January 2020 the threshold will revert back to £200,000.
Employment Allowance – this will increase to £4,000 (previously £3,000) from April 2020. There are several conditions, including exclusions for businesses with an Employer National Insurance liability over £100,000.
The flat rate tax deduction for working at home will increase from April 2020 to £6 per week (from £4 per week).

Making Tax Digital

There were no new announcements on MTD, other than to report that the Government will publish an evaluation on its introduction.

Off-payroll Working Rules / IR35

There are changes due to impact businesses from April 2020. For further information on this topic, please read our news item - IR35 Private Sector Reform
UPDATE ** On 17 March 2020, it was announced that the planned reforms to Off-payroll Working Rules for the Private Sector were to be delayed until 1 April 2021.

Other Announcements

Student Loans – from 6 April 2020 the earnings threshold for Plan 1 loans will increase to £19,390 (previously £18,935) and Plan 2 loans will increase to £26,575 (previously £25,725).
Non-UK residents who buy a property in England and Northern Ireland will have to pay an extra 2% stamp duty from 1 April 2021.