Expert Commentary

The main announcements were:

First Time Buyers of property up to £500,000 will pay no stamp duty on the first £300,000.

Extra £3bn set aside for Brexit costs (in addition to existing £700m).  

National Living Wage increased by 4.4% from £7.50 to £7.83 from April 2018.  

Personal allowance to increase to £11,850 from April 2018 and higher-rate income tax threshold to rise to £46,350.  

Tax on tobacco to continue to increase by inflation plus 2% (which would be around 6%).  

Duty on alcohol frozen, except for high strength white cider where there will be new legislation to increase duty.  

Excise duty to rise one band for diesel cars (not vans) that do not meet standards.   100% premium on Council Tax on empty properties to help address the housing shortage.  

£1.5bn package to address concerns about Universal Credit introduction. Claimants to get one month’s payment within five days of making application and seven day waiting period before application can be made is abolished.  

VAT threshold for small businesses stays at £85,000 for two years. It had been thought could be lowered to align the VAT threshold with European countries. There will be  a review of the VAT system.  

Business rate switch to CPI from RPI to be introduced in April 2018, two years earlier than planned. This saves businesses £2.3bn over five years.  Revaluations will be undertaken every three years in future.  

£200m a year will be raised by HMRC charging more tax on royalties which relate to UK sales and royalties are transferred to another jurisdiction with low tax rates.  It is acknowledged that this will not solve the problem, but it is an indication of an intention to make efforts to tackle the issue.