After the drama of the mini-budget, the U-turns and Jeremy Hunt’s appointment last year, you can understand why the announcement of the Spring Budget 2023 was a low key event!

His first Budget, last Autumn, was very much planned to calm the markets and restore some order after the upheaval caused by Former PM Liz Truss and his predecessor as Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng, but at the same time he made some major changes. These included:

• An increase in Corporation tax to 25% from the current 19% from April 2024.
• A freeze on income tax thresholds until 2028

You can see more of the announcements from November 2022’s Budget here.

The Chancellor said in January that it was unlikely that there would be room for any ‘significant’ tax cuts within his speech. His primary focus is to halve the rate of inflation which he called ‘the best tax cut right now.’

Some slightly better than expected fiscal results in recent weeks have resulted in calls for some measures that may not have been possible before. This headroom has come from Public borrowing being £30.6billion lower than predicted in the financial year to date, and because the economy didn’t shrink in December 2022 as was expected.

So, what did he come up with?

• The biggest announcement was the abolition of the Pensions Lifetime Allowance.
• The planned increase in Corporation Tax was unaffected, and will go ahead in April 2023.
• Measures were announced to encourage workers to return to the workforce, including additional childcare support.
• The Energy Price guarantee has been extended for another three months.
• A replacement scheme for the Super Deduction has been announced, ‘Full Expensing’.

The Summary…

To access our summary, click on the button below:

If you’d like to read the Chancellor’s full speech, you can see that here.

There’s always additional detail that’s published after the Chancellor’s speech has been delivered. We’ll work through this and be in touch to clarify or provide extra information as appropriate.

If you’d like to discuss the impact of the announcements on your personal or business affairs, or anything else, please get in touch.