Autumn Budget 2017 – Highlights

A highly anticipated budget was delivered by Chancellor Philip Hammond yesterday.

It was a somewhat downbeat assessment on the state of the UK economy and light on major changes affecting the personal investment landscape. It did come with some positive announcements around personal allowances and some amendments to the Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS) legislation. We have drawn out some key areas of interest for Finura clients.

The state of the economy

• Growth forecast for 2017 downgraded from 2% to 1.5%
• GDP downgraded to 1.4%, 1.3% and 1.5% in subsequent years before rising to 1.6% in 2021-22
• Annual rate of CPI inflation forecast to fall from peak of 3% to 2% later this year

Personal taxation

• Tax-free personal allowance to rise to £11,850 in April 2018
• Higher-rate tax threshold to increase to £46,350

Investments

• Limit for investment in EIS companies will increase from £1m to £2m. Relief will be restricted those businesses carrying an element of genuine risk

Business

• Consultation on threshold of £85,000 at which small businesses pay VAT
• From April 2018, rates will rise in line with the lower Consumer Prices Index (CPI) measure of inflation, not the Retail Prices Index (RPI).

Stamp Duty

• Stamp duty is to be abolished for first-time buyers on properties up to £300,000.
• To help those in London and other expensive areas, the first £300,000 of the cost of a £500,000 purchase by all first-time buyers will be exempt from stamp duty, with the remaining £200,000 incurring 5%.

To discuss any of the implications and opportunities that any of these changes may have, please contact your Finura Partners adviser. A more in-depth view of the budget will follow shortly.