Good news regarding the early increase in personal allowances to £12,500 and to raise the higher rate threshold to £50,000 a year earlier than expected. Higher rate taxpayers should benefit the most but all taxpayers should see a benefit with some individuals being taken out of income tax altogether.
Recycling to receive a much needed boost, a plastic tax would apply to produced and imported packaging that does not have at least 30% recycled content – a step in the right direction, but I was disappointed why a levy was not applied to tackle the use of plastic cups as providing a discount to customers who supply their own cup is not changing people’s habits.
Watch out medium and large private companies where there may be IR35 issues as off-payroll rules that have been introduced to the public sector are now being applied to the private sector. Implementation is being delayed until 2020 to allow firms to review existing contracts but the responsibility will fall to the organisation and not the individual. Companies must have the expertise and knowledge to make the appropriate IR35 assessments
No changes to the VAT Threshold remaining at £85k until 2022, this was as expected with the introduction of MTD for April 2019 applying for VAT registered business.
Corporation tax to remain at 19% at present and changing to 17% from 2020, Is this because of the expected GDP growth forecasts or the fact that the government are expecting better receipts from taxes?
And finally beer and cider duty is frozen, I feel a reduction is required if we want to keep our local pubs open.
If you have any questions regarding the Autumn 2018 Budget then please call your local Lambert Chapman contact on 01376 326266.
Disclaimer
The views expressed in this article are the personal views of the Author and other professionals may express different views. They may not be the views of Lambert Chapman LLP. The material in the article cannot and should not be considered as exhaustive. Professional advice should be sought in connection with any of the issues contained in the article and the implementation of any actions.