The key points were:
Individuals
Tax
• Income tax personal allowance to go up to £9,440 next year, £235 more than previously announced. The rise will be extended to higher rate tax payers.
• Threshold for 40% rate of income tax to rise by 1% in 2014 and 2015 from £41,450 to £41,865 and then £42,285.
• Inheritance tax threshold to rise from £325,000 now to £329,000 in 2015/16
• Planned 3p per litre rise in fuel duty scrapped
• Capital gains tax annual exempt amount to increase by 1% over the same period, reaching £11,100
• No new tax on property
Pensions
• From 2014/15 will further reduce lifetime pension relief allowance from £1.5 to £1.25m. Annual tax-free allowance reduction from £50,000 to £40,000
• Basic state pension to rise by 2.5pc next year to £110.15 a week
• Increase in capped drawdown limit for pensioners from 100pc to 120pc
Savings
• Overall ISA limit increased to £11,520 from next April
Business
• SME equity markets to be held directly in stocks and shares ISAs
• The main rate of corporation tax to be cut by 1% to 21% from April 2014
• Bank levy rate to be increased to 0.13pc next year
• Temporary doubling of the small business rate relief scheme to be extended by a further year to 2014
• £1bn extra capital for Business Bank
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/budget/9723417/Autumn-Statement-2012-key-points.html
Department for BIS key points:
- An additional £600 million for science, research and innovation, which takes the total investment since the 2010 spending review to an additional £1.5 billion.
- An extra £270 million to be spent on laboratories, classrooms and other facilities in our Further Education colleges.
- £1 billion confirmed for the business bank, which will address the long-term structural gap in lending to small businesses.
- An extra £120 million invested in supply chains, to encourage companies to invest here in the UK.
- The Regional Growth Fund will also receive an additional £350 million, bringing the total available in 2012-13 to £2.75 billion.
- Extra money for the Employer Ownership Pilot, taking it to £340 million overall and giving businesses funding so they can design and develop their own training programmes.
- Increased funding of £140 million for UK Trade & Investment (UKTI) to help small and medium sized business export abroad.
- £1.5 billion to help our smallest companies to access growing markets overseas. For the first time UK Export Finance, the Government’s export credit agency, will be able to issue loans to overseas customers and buyers wanting to purchase goods from UK businesses.
- A package of measures to cut back red tape that business has told government stops them from growing.
http://www.bis.gov.uk/news/topstories/2012/Dec/autumn-statement-2012
Britain’s small businesses were given a boost in the Autumn Statement when the Chancellor instigated a tenfold increase in allowances on capital spending such as tools, office equipment and commercial vans to £250,000.
Take Our Pollsteve@bicknells.net
