Autumn Budget Overview 2024

The Chancellor of the Exchequer presented her 2024 Spring Budget to parliament on 30th October 2024. We are pleased to share our summary and key points that came out of this budget.

A summary of the 2024 Autumn Budget announcements, including changes to taxes, pensions, trusts and inheritance tax.

Income tax:

The personal allowance will remain at £12,570, and this is frozen until 2028.

The rates for the UK (excluding Scotland) will remain at:

  • Basic tax rate 20% on first £37,700 over the personal allowance.
  • Higher rate 40% on earnings over £37,700 plus personal allowance.
  • Additional rate 45% on earnings over £125,140.

The rates of income tax for Scottish taxpayers will be announced in the Scottish Government’s budget in December.

Employee National Insurance

As with income tax, Labour stated in their manifesto they wouldn’t increase employee National Insurance contributions. From 6 April 2025, employee National Insurance will remain at:

  • Class 1 National Insurance contributions employees will pay 8% on their earnings between the primary threshold and the upper earnings limit; between £12,570 and £50,270.
  • Class 1 National Insurance contributions employees pay 2%, on their earnings above the National Insurance contributions upper earnings limit.

Employer National Insurance

Class 1A and 1B employer National Insurance contributions from 6 April 2025 will be increased from 13.8% to 15.0% on earnings over £5,000.

The Secondary Threshold, from which employer contributions start to be paid, will reduce from £9,100 a year to £5,000 a year.

The Employment Allowance, which allows employers who pay less than £100,000 in National Insurance contributions to reduce their National Insurance bill, will increase from £5,000 to £10,500 from 6 April 2025.

Pension death benefits

There is normally no inheritance tax on death benefits if the choice of beneficiary is the scheme administrator’s, using their powers of discretion. From 6 April 2027, inherited pension death benefits will be subject to inheritance tax regardless of who chooses the beneficiaries. The Government will consult on the processes needed to implement these changes.

State pensions

The Government is keeping the triple lock. The Basic State Pension, new State Pension and Pension Credit standard minimum guarantee will be uprated in April 2025 by 4.1%, in line with earnings growth in September 2024.

  • The new State Pension will rise by £474.85 to £12,016.75 a year.
  • The Basic State pension will rise by £361.40 to £9,175.40 a year.

Individual savings account (ISA)

Subscription limits remain the same from 6 April 2025 so are:

  • Adult ISA annual subscription – £20,000
  • Child Trust fund – £9,000
  • Junior ISA – £9,000
  • Lifetime ISA – £4,000

It was announced that the Government will not be moving forward with the British ISA due to mixed responses to the consultation launched in March 2024.

Inheritance tax

The nil rate band (£325,000) and the residential nil rate band (£175,000) will remain frozen until April 2030.

Qualify business property investments such as AIM shares will have their relief cut from 100% to 50%, ie will be subject to IHT at 20%.

From 6 April 2026, an individual will be able to leave combined business and agricultural assets to their loved ones of £1million without an Inheritance tax liability, with any excess being taxed at 20%.

From 6 April 2025, the domicile-based system for inheritance tax will be replaced by a residency-based system.

Capital Gains Tax

From 30 October 2024 the lower rate will be increased from 10% to 18%, with the higher rate being increased from 20 to 24%. This brings the rates in line with the rates for residential property. The annual allowance remains at £3,000.

Trevor Charlwood

As you may be aware, Trevor has not been in good health in these past months and majority of Trevor’s clients have been serviced by ether Mark, James, or Bryan. It is great regret to inform you our friend and Colleague Trevor Charlwood has sadly passed away on the 18th April 2023.

Trevor was very passionate and diligent about his work and always provided an excellent service for his clients and anyone that needed his expertise. All his clients meant a lot to him and saw them as a friend as well as a client. I know all of you will all join us in sending sincere condolences to Trevor’s family.

All of Trevor’s clients’ investments and Pensions will continue to be managed by MJB under another IFA here. Most of Trevor’s clients have been emailed regarding this and if you have any questions, please do contact us.

SPRING BUDGET OVERVIEW 2023

The Chancellor of the Exchequer presented his 2023 Spring Budget to parliament on Wednesday 15th March. We are pleased to share our summary and key points that came out of this budget.

These changes will take place after April 6th 2023.

Some of the key points included:

  • Most tax allowances frozen (income tax bands, IHT allowances)
  • Capital Gains Tax annual exemption will be cut from £12,300 to £6,000 to April 2023 then a further cut to £3,000 in April 2024
  • Fuel and alcohol duty no change
  • Corporation Tax main rate increasing from 19% to 25%
  • Energy bill support scheme extended
  • Tax – Free Annual Pension Contribution allowance is set to increase from £40,000 to £60,000 pa
  • Money Purchase Annual Allowance for pension contributions has been increase from £4,000 to £10,000 pa
  • The Lifetime Allowance for large pension funds will be abolished
  • Tapered Annual Allowance will be increasing to £4,000 to £10,000

Christmas Holiday Opening Hours

As the Christmas Holiday’s are around the corner. We would like to remind everyone how our opening hours will be affected during this period.

Our opening hours will be as follows:

19th – 23rd December – Normal Opening Hours of 9am – 5:30pm.

26th – 30th December – Closed For Christmas Holiday’s.

Our Advisors will be loosely monitoring their emails. If you have any urgent queries please send them an email and your advisor will get back to you at their earliest convenience.

From all of us here at MJB we wish you a very Merry Christmas!

Autumn Budget Overview 2022

The Autumn budget was held on the 17th November 2022. We are pleased to share our summary of the key announcements in this Autumn budget.

Some of the highlights were:

  • The Main National Insurance and inheritance tax thresholds also frozen for further two years, until April 2028
  • Tax-free allowances for dividend and capital gains tax are also due to be cut next year and in 2022
  • The state pension payments and means-tested and disability benefits to increase by 10.1%, in line with inflation
  • Apart from in Scotland, the top 45% additional rate of income tax will be paid on earnings over £125,140, instead of £150,000
  • Local councils in England will be able to increase council tax up to 5% a year without a local vote, instead of the current 3%
  • Windfall tax on profits of oil and gas firms increased from 25% to 35% and will be extended until March 2028
  • Household energy price cap extended for one year beyond April, however, typical bills will be capped at £3,000 a year instead of £2,500
  • £300 payments to pensioner households, and £150 for individuals on disability benefit.

SPRING 2022 STATEMENT OVERVIEW

The Spring Statement was delivered on 23rd March and although it is not a mini budget, it contained the following changes designed to help families, particularly in light of inflation having been announced at 6.2%. The highlights of this are as follows:

  • Petrol and Diesel duty will be cut temporarily for 12-months by 5p per litre from 23 March 2022.
  • VAT relief for the installation of energy saving materials (ESMs) will be extended.
  • The primary threshold for Class 1 National Insurance Contributions (NICs) will increase from £9,880 a year to £12,570 a year from 6 July 2022, which brings it in line with the frozen personal allowance.
  • For the self-employed, the lower profits limit will increase from £9,880 to £11,908 in 2022/23, rising to £12,570 in 2023/24. Class 2 NICs will not be payable if profits are below these limits. The maximum potential Class 4 NICs saving in 2022/23 is £208.
  • The employment allowance will be increased to £5,000 from April 2022.

COVID UPDATE – FEB 2022

Although there are no official restrictions in place we are still being careful. Hand sanitiser is provided by the door and we are still using a screen if you have a meeting with your adviser in the office.

We are still more than happy to have client meetings via video or telephone link, if you would prefer.  Advisers and admin staff are using the office but are still working from home for some of the time.

We hope you are staying safe and well.

Best wishes,

MJB Staff

 

Last Week in the Markets

 18-22 November 2024
Index Close Week’s Change 52 - Wk High 52 - Wk Low
FTSE
100
8,262 2.47% 7,687 6,708
Dow Jones
(US)

44,297

1.96% 36,953 28,661
Nikkei
225

38,284

-0.93% 29,961 24,682
DAX  19,323 0.58% 16,290 11,863

 

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