Autumn Budget 2021
Chancellor Rishi Sunak used the Autumn Budget 2021 to outline the government’s plans for post pandemic, post Brexit Britain. Investing taxpayer money in long-term plans will, he believes, secure the economic future of the country. Everything from the NHS, schools, local transport and the culture and leisure sector appear set to benefit from the better-than-expected economic outlook from the Office for Budget Responsibility.
But immediate changes to improve the finances of households and businesses increasingly worried about rising costs over the next 12 months were thin on the ground.
Some of the highlights were:
- A warning for asset holders as the Chancellor expects to raise £985m from freezing inheritance tax bands, £990m from freezing the pension lifetime allowance, and an extra £65m from freezing the annual exemption on capital gains tax (CGT) in the next five years.
- Effective immediately, the deadline for reporting and paying CGT after selling UK residential property will increase from 30 days to 60 days after completion.
- Retail, hospitality and leisure will be eligible for a temporary £1.7 billion of business rates relief next year. The business rates multiplier will be frozen for 2022/23 so bills are 3% lower than without the freeze. From 2023, no business will face higher rates bills for 12 months after making qualifying improvements to an occupied property.
- A 6.6% increase to the national living wage to £9.50 an hour, from 1 April 2022, was confirmed. Young people and apprentices will also see increases in the national minimum wage rates.
- Alcohol duty will be restructured so that all beverages will be taxed in direct proportion to their alcohol content.
- A new domestic air passenger duty band will cover flights within the UK with a rate of £6.50 for 2023/24. There will be a new ultra-long-haul band, covering destinations with capitals located more than 5,500 miles from London, with an economy rate of £91.
- The temporary £1 million level of the annual investment allowance will be extended to
31 March 2023.
If you have any questions about the summary’s contents or how any aspects of your tax and financial planning may be affected by the Budget, please call us to discuss them.
COVID-19 UPDATE
We remain in difficult times, but are delighted with the roll out of the UK government Vaccine programme for use in the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic. We are keeping an extremely close eye on the latest government guidance and our main priority is in keeping our staff and clients safe going forward.
Our offices are now fully open (9am-5pm – Front door is closed between 1pm-2pm) to members of the public for the foreseeable future, although we do suggest you make an appointment to come into see us, which we would be more than happy to do. If you haven't given us your records and tax information for the 2021 tax return, please could we have it as soon as possible to give us time to make sure that it can be prepared prior to the filing deadline.
Our offices are Covid secure and we require you to sanitise you’re your hands upon entry as well as wear a face covering during your visit. We do ask that if you are showing any symptoms of Covid-19 that you do not attend our offices at all, we will happily arrange for a telephone or video conferencing call as an alternative.
We understand that this is a very daunting time for businesses (as well as everyone else), there is a wealth of information on our dedicated Covid-19 support for business page, however, should you wish to contact any of the partners by email then please do so.
We are all working in uncertain times and having to adapt to different ways in which we can look after our clients, we want to assure you that Maxwells are fully committed to the health and well-being of our team and our clients and that we are doing everything that we can to minimise disruption to the excellent client service and support you have come to expect of us, if you have any concerns then please do let us know.