A round up of the Spring Budget 2024 Predictions.
Given that this is a pre-election Budget, speculation is rife about the measures Mr Hunt may announce. The man himself, is playing down the possibility of tax cuts recently telling the BBC:
“I need to set people’s expectations about the scale of what I’m doing because people need to know that, when a Conservative government cuts taxes, we will do so in a responsible and sensible way.”
At the weekend, Mr Hunt reinforced this message, telling the BBC:
” This will be a prudent and responsible budget for long term growth – tackling inflation, more investment, more jobs – and that path to lower taxation as and when we can afford it.”
Here’s a round up of media speculation:
- Cutting the basic rate of Income Tax by as much as 2p, reducing basic rate to 18%
- Cutting the rate of Inheritance Tax from 40% to 20% for estates worth in excess of £325,000 or abolishing it altogether
- A thawing of the freeze on income tax thresholds – currently frozen until April 2028
- Scrapping or reform of IR35 (off-payroll rules)
- Increasing VAT registration threshold from £85,000 which has been in place since April 2017
- A delay to the introduction of the single Research and Development (R&D) tax relief regime – due to be implemented in April 2024
- An increase in the main £20,000 annual ISA saving limit
- Pension reform to benefit savers with multiple small pension pots
- Freezing fuel duty
- Ending non-dom status
- Expanding the range of investments eligible fo full-expensing
- Reform of the apprenticeship levy
The cost of such measures is significant and the Government has hinted at a “5 year tax cutting plan” which spreads the costs of any Budget announcements over several years. This is, of course, conjecture at this point. All will become clear on Budget Day, 6 March 2024.