Spring Budget 2025: Introduction

Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rachel Reeves, held the Spring Statement on Wednesday 26 March 2025. In the run up to the event, the Chancellor stated that she ‘remains committed to one major fiscal event a year to give families and businesses stability and certainty on upcoming tax and spending changes and, in turn, to support the government’s growth mission’. The Chancellor did m… Continue Reading

Spring Budget 2025: Government spending announcements

National security

Reductions in the Official Development Assistance budget (overseas aid) will support an increase in NATO-qualifying defence spending to 2.5% of GDP by April 2027, with an ambition to increase to 3% in the next Parliament as economic and fiscal conditions allow. The Spring Statement accelerates towards this by providing an additional £2.2 billion of funding… Continue Reading

Spring Budget 2025: Personal Tax

Tax bands and rates

The basic rate of tax is 20%. For 2025/26 the band of income taxable at this rate is £37,700 so that the threshold at which the 40% rate applies is £50,270 for those who are entitled to the full personal allowance. The basic rate band is frozen at £37,700 until April 2028. The NICs Upper Earnings Limit and Upper Profits Limit will remain aligned to the higher rate thres… Continue Reading

Spring Budget 2025: National Insurance contributions

Employees and employers

The government announced that it will increase the employer rate from 13.8% to 15% from 6 April 2025. The main rate of Class 1 employee National Insurance contributions (NICs) is 8%. The Secondary Threshold is the point at which employers become liable to pay NICs on an individual employee’s earnings and is currently set at £9,100 a year. The government wil… Continue Reading

Spring Budget 2025: Employment

National Living Wage and National Minimum Wage

The government has announced increased rates of the National Living Wage (NLW) and National Minimum Wage (NMW) which will come into force from 1 April 2025. The rates which will apply are as follows: From 1 April 2025 • NLW – £12.21
• 18-20 – £10.00
• 16-17 – £7.55
• Apprentices – £7.55

The apprenticeship rate a… Continue Reading

Spring Budget 2025: Capital Gains Tax

Capital Gains Tax rates

The Capital Gains Tax rates increased for disposals, other than of residential property and carried interest, made on or after 30 October 2024. The basic rate of 10% increased to 18% and the 20% rate increased to 24%. No changes were made to the rates applying to the disposal of residential properties of 18% and 24%. The rate applying to trustees and personal r… Continue Reading

Spring Budget 2025: Inheritance Tax

Inheritance Tax nil rate bands

The nil rate band has been frozen at £325,000 since 2009 and this will continue to be frozen up to 5 April 2030. An additional nil rate band, called the ‘residence nil rate band’ is also frozen at the current £175,000 level, as is the residence nil rate band taper starting at £2 million. These are also frozen until 5 April 2030.

Unused pension funds and deat

… Continue Reading

Spring Budget 2025: Business

Making Tax Digital (MTD) for Income Tax

The rollout of MTD for Income Tax will be expanded to include a wider range of small businesses and will operate as follows: • It will start from April 2026 for sole traders and landlords with qualifying incomes over £50,000.
• It will extend to those with qualifying incomes over £30,000 in April 2027.
• It will extend again to those with qualifyi… Continue Reading

Spring Budget 2025: Other Matters

Consultations

There were a number of tax-related consultations announced in the Spring Statement, including: • Clearances for the Research and Development tax reliefs, with the aims of reducing error and fraud, increasing certainty for customers and improving customer experience. • Modernising how HMRC acquires and uses third-party data to make it easier for taxpayers to g… Continue Reading

Autumn Budget 2024: Introduction

Chancellor Rachel Reeves delivered her Budget on Wednesday 30 October 2024. She pledged to ‘invest, invest, invest’ to drive growth and ‘restore economic stability’. Billions in tax rises Ms Reeves said the Budget will raise £40 billion in taxes. Employers’ National Insurance contributions (NICs) will be increased from next April while Capital Gains Tax rates will also rise.… Continue Reading