Kirk Rice Blog

2017 Autumn Budget – How Will It Affect You?Written on November 23, 2017 by Kirk Rice LLP

Mr Hammond will probably be pleased if commentators decide that his Autumn Budget was a steady-as-she-goes, broadly modest Budget. After the national insurance u-turn he was forced to make after his March Budget this year, that was probably his aim.

In any case, for a variety of economic and political reasons, the Chancellor announced a relatively modest net tax giveaway in the this Autumn Budget of just under £1.6 billion for the coming tax year.

His main attention-seeking move was to give first time buyers an exemption from stamp duty land tax on the first £300,000 of value for properties worth up to £500,000. Rumours – probably from the Treasury itself – had trailed changes along these lines, and the new relief represents more than a third of his net giveaway.

With income tax, the changes were much less dramatic – increasing both the personal allowance and the higher rate threshold by 3% – the standard inflation-linked increase. ISA investors saw their main ISA and lifetime ISA investment limits frozen and only children saw a small increase in their specialist ISAs. There was better news for pension savers who enjoyed a £30,000 increase in the lifetime allowance and thankfully no cuts to the annual allowance.

Several measures were designed to introduce much more of a focus on risk investment for venture capital trusts, enterprise investment schemes and seed enterprise investment schemes.

Most Chancellors tend to cram all the painful announcements into Budgets at the start of a Parliament; for a range of reasons, Mr Hammond decided that he did not need – or perhaps couldn’t afford – to do this.

We trust that you find the 2017 Autumn Budget Summary useful; if you have any questions about it’s contents or how any aspects of your tax and financial planning may be affected by the Budget, please get in touch with Graham Jennings in our Ascot office on 01344 875 000, Hadley Baldock in our Putney office on  0208 789 8588 or Peter Sharratt our Financial services partner on 01344 875 000 or email info@kirkrice.co.uk.

If you would like to receive Kirk Rice’s Financial Services or Tax Questions regularly by email, simply email info@kirkrice.co.uk stating Money Matters & Taxing Times in the subject heading and we will add you to our distribution list.

Please note: answers are given for general guidance only and specific advice should be taken before acting on any of the suggestions made.