As the Chancellor Phillip Hammond prepares to deliver his Autumn Budget on Wednesday November 22, Thomson Reuters’ Practical Law Tax Team has written a summary of the business tax issues that we can expect the government to address.
The budget will be the first of its kind under the new parliamentary schedule, after Hammond used last year’s Autumn Statement to permanently scrap the Spring Budget.
Key predictions
The business tax predictions, as outlined by the Practical Law Tax Team, focus on measures that are likely to be significant and involve a consultation, draft legislation or outstanding details.
It is expected that the government will reveal its response, and potentially draft legislation, to the consultation which ended in June 2017 on extending corporation tax to non-resident companies.
Furthermore, there may be an announcement on the proposed review of stamp duty on shares transactions, and confirmation of the threshold for the low-income exemption under Making Tax Digital for income tax.
Additionally, though, there has been lots of speculation swirling in the press over some surprises which could surface in the Autumn Budget – particularly around ‘intergenerational fairness’, a term coined by Hammond himself. It has been hypothesized that Hammond is ‘considering linking income tax to age,’ and offering younger taxpayers a reduction in National Insurance Contributions. There is also speculation that pensions tax relief may be changed due to Hammond’s ‘integrational fairness’.
And then, of course, there is Brexit. Fiscal pressures created by the UK’s impending exit from the European Union, and the downgraded economic forecast, ‘may mean that Hammond is not in a position to offer any tax cuts, and may instead be forced to freeze the personal allowance in April 2018.’
For an in-depth view of what the Autumn Budget might entail, read the Practical Law Tax Team’s full summary here.
