Evelyn Partners' Spring Budget 2024 summary

In what could potentially be his last Budget, the Chancellor of the Exchequer asserted his plans to “grow the economy”.

The key announcements included:

Personal measures

• A reduction to National Insurance (NI). 2p will be taken off the Class 1 rate of NI contributions for employees, with the rate falling from 10% to 8%. The rates for people who are self-employed will also fall by another 2p down to 6%. These changes will come into effect from April 2024
• The launch of the ‘British ISA’ with an additional allowance of £5,000 aimed at increasing investment into UK companies. At this stage, it’s unknown when this will be brought into effect
• The current ‘non-dom’ tax regime, which broadly applies to UK residents whose permanent home is overseas, will be replaced in April 2025
• The removal of multiple dwellings relief (MDR), a bulk purchase relief in the stamp duty land tax regime, from June 2024
• Raising the threshold for the high-income child benefit charge (HICBC) in the immediate term from £50,000 to £60,000 from April 2024. There is a longer-term plan to move to a household-based system by April 2026
• The higher rate of capital gains tax (CGT) on residential property will be cut from 28% to 24% from April 2024. The basic rate of CGT on residential property will remain at 18%
• The abolition of the furnished holiday lets (FHLs) regime from 6 April 2025, to rebalance the tax treatment of holiday rentals compared to long-term lets

Business-related measures

• An increase in the VAT registration threshold from £85,000 to £90,000, effective from 1 April 2024
• Full Expensing (FE) is expected to be extended to leased assets for plant-leasing companies. FE provides 100% corporation tax relief for capital expenditure. This will be implemented “as soon as cost efficient to do so”, subject to consultation