George Osborne, Chancellor of the Exchequer, has announced the latest Autumn Statement along with his Spending Review.
Download our full Autumn Statement 2015 report
The two biggest politcal issues were tackled and the Chancellor agreed to scrap plans to cut tax credits; however the devil will, as ever, be in the detail. In light of recent times the loudest cheers were for not cutting Police Budget.
There was not a great deal to excite small businesses but there are a few key issues
Digitally advanced tax administration will be improved – George Osborne stated that the UK will have “the most digitally advanced tax administration in the world” by investing £1.3bn in digital tax accounts. There will be digital tax accounts for all taxpayers by 2020. As a firm we are already heavily digital – it will be interesting to see how these changes impact. All small businesses and individuals will have access to the digital tax accounts by 2016-17. The government will publish its plans to transform the tax system shortly and will consult on the details in 2016.
It was not a good day for landlords and property owners.
The Summer Budget had already introduced some key changes to property tax which were not good , with the removal of the wear and tear allowance and the restriction of tax relief on finance costs. These were both in relation to buy to let landlords. This was made even worse in the statement.
From 1 April 2016 purchasers of buy to let and second homes will pay 3% SDLT. This measure will also affect taxpayers who have holiday homes, flats in cities etc. even if they are not renting the properties out.
The other SDLT announcement will affect all purchasers. The filing and payment window for SDLT is to be reduced from 30 days to 14 in 2017/18. The Chancellor said is due to the government making the payment and filing system easier and faster, presumably in line with the digitisation of taxation systems.
The other property tax change announced was in relation to the time of payments of Capital Gains Tax (CGT). Currently CGT on all gains is due in line with self assessment. This is changing in relation to gains on residential property from April 2019 and will be within 30 days of completion of the transaction. No detail has been released as yet but it is hard to see how it will work in practice, there will assumably be a different calculation basis for CGT on property.
Tax avoidance on disguised employees and their remuneration is to be subject to further anti-avoidance measures. This has long been a target issue, particularly in relation to IR35 and its impact on contractors. HMRC will actually have to challenge someone under the GAAR first, which they don’t seem to have done since it was enacted in 2013
to be completed
State pension rising by more than £3 to £119.30. We’ll have to work longer though
26 new or extended enterprise zones to be created #enterprisezone
Osborne says he will abolish uniform business rate, local government will keep all the revenue by the end of the parliament. Councils to have power to cut #rates to make areas more attractive to businesses #spendingreview #AutumnStatement
The Small business rate relief scheme is to be extended by another year
Diesel #cars to remain more expensive in #companycar terms as 3% supplement remains until 2021 (rather than going in 2016)
Increased funding for apprenticeships – Chancellor @George_Osborne: investment in #apprenticeships is huge, vital reform for biz
3% stamp duty on buy to lets More penalties for BTL investors. + plans to new rates of SDLT on purchase for Buy-to-Lets from April 2016
Our live twitter feed
Our live Facebook feed