News

Personal Taxation

• Personal Tax Allowance 2019/20 and 2020/21 - £12,500.
• Basic Rate Tax Band 2019/20 and 2020/21 – £12,501 to £50,000 in England and Wales.
• Higher Rate Tax Band 2019/20 and 2020/21 – starts at £50,001 in England and Wales.
• Tax Rates and Thresholds for Scotland will be announced on 12 December 2018.
• National Living Wage for those aged over 25 to increase to £8.21 per hour.
• Primary National Insurance Threshold 2019/20 - £166 per week.
• Upper Earnings Limit for National Insurance - £962 per week.
• Dividend Tax Allowance remains at £2,000 as at 06.04.19.
• Capital Gains Tax Annual Exempt Amount for individuals 2019/20 £12,000.

Savings

• Starting rate for savings will be kept at its current level of £5,000.
• Cash and shares ISA’s combined limit £20,000.
• Lifetime ISA limit £4,000.
• Junior ISA limit £4,368.

Self Employment Taxation

• Class 2 NI has not been abolished for 2019/20 and will be £3 per week.
• Class 2 NI 2019/20 is payable above Small Profits Threshold £6,365.
• Class 4 NI Lower Profit Limit £8,632.
• Class 4 NI Upper Profit Limit £50,000.

Welfare and Pensions

• The Lifetime allowance for pensions will increase to £1,055,000 for 2019/20.

Transport

• No rise in fuel duty for ninth year in a row.
• Air Passenger Duty will not increase.
• E-Passport gates, i.e. those available to EU citizens, at airports are to be opened for use by people from USA, Canada, New Zealand, Australia and Japan.

Alcohol and Tobacco

• Duty on beer, most cider and spirits frozen.
• Duty on wine and higher strength sparkling cider will rise by RPI inflation from 01 February 2019.
• Duty on cigarettes to increase by 2% above inflation from 6pm on 29 October 2018.
• Hand rolling tobacco duty will increase by 3% above inflation from 6pm on 29 October 2018

VAT

• VAT threshold of £85,000 will be maintained until April 2022.

Property

• Letting Relief as of 2020/21 to be restricted to where the Owner is in shared occupancy with the Tenant.

Business

• Business Rates for retail premises in England up to a rateable value below £51,000 will be decreased by one third for 2 years starting from April 2019.
• 100% Business Rates relief for all public lavatories.
• £1,500 Business Rates discount for office space occupied by local newspapers in 2019/20.
• New Digital Services Tax of 2% to be introduced from April 2020 on some large businesses.
• Reforms to the taxation of off-payroll working (IR35 rules) in the private sector have been deferred until April 2020 and will exclude small business.
• The NI Employment Allowance will be restricted to employers with an employers NI bill below £100,000 in their previous tax year.
• Corporation Tax will remain at 19% for 2019/20.
• The Annual Investment Allowance will increase to £1million between 01 January 2019 and 31 December 2020.

Other

• First time buyer exemption from Stamp Duty Land Tax for purchases up to £300,000
• First time buyers of homes worth between £300,000 and £500,000 will not pay stamp duty on the first £300,000.
• No relief for those buying properties over £500,000.

The above is meant as an indication of the main points included in the Autumn Statement 2018. The information should not be relied upon as taxation advice.

Please contact us at Foremans LLP on 01244 625 500 for a free no obligation discussion on any of the changes above.