Spring Budget 2020 at a glance

Spring Budget 2020 announcements made on 11 March 2020.

Just four weeks into the job as Chancellor, Rishi Sunak has delivered not only his first Budget, but also the UK's first Budget for 47 years as a non-EU member.

Quite an achievement for the 39 year-old, who has opened the spending and borrowing taps to create an infrastructure revolution.

The Treasury's coffers are going viral, and not just because of Covid-19.

We have pulled out the key announcements from the Budget.

Further analysis is available in our download.

Brief recap – key changes previously announced:

• Corporation tax to remain at 19%
• NICs primary threshold and lower profits limit increased to £9,500.
• April 2020 – National Living Wage will rise from £8.21 to £8.72
• VAT threshold frozen at £85,000
• Employment allowance – from April 2020 reformed for NI bills below £100,000
• CGT private residences relief – final 18 months exemption reduced to 9 months
• CGT - 30 days to pay tax on sale of a UK residential property.
• IR35 roll out to private sector from April 2020 will apply to large and medium sized businesses, with a soft landing.
• Extra money for councils for social care, etc.

Spring Budget 2020 key measures announced:

• Entrepreneurs' Relief - Lifetime limit reduced from £10m to £1m from 11 March 2020 (no change for Investors' Relief)
• Plastic packaging tax from April 2022
• Covid-19 - SSP for those who are advised to self isolate
• Temp removal of minimum income floor for universal credit
• SSP refunded in full for up to 14 days (employers with less than 250 staff)
• Covid-19 business interruption loan scheme from banks
• Abolishing business rates for cinemas etc for one year
• 100% business rates retail discount extended to public venues
• Fundamental review into business rates system
• Cash grants to smallest business rate payers (max £3,000 per business)
• Employment Allowance increased from £3,000 to £4,000 from April 2020.
• Tampon tax abolished from 1 January 2021
• Cancelled planned increase in spirit duty, beer & other alcohol
• Business rate discount increased from £1,000 to £5,000
• Fuel duty remains frozen
• Red diesel - tax relief abolished for most sectors (agriculture not affected)
• £600bn available for infrastructure spending
• New funding for schools
• Abolish VAT on digital publications from 1 December 2020
• April 2021 - 2% Stamp duty surcharge on residential property bought by foreign buyers
• New tax crackdown on anti-avoidance measures
• Pensions tax system - taper threshold increased by £90,000 to £200,000
• Spending review to be carried out in the summer

Comment from Andrew Browne:

We support the measures announced by the Chancellor to help businesses with the Coronavirus, and particularly the help aimed at small and medium-sized employers. But we note that there is no support for larger employers, even though recent experience has shown that larger firms are sometimes more at risk.

Tax Tables 2020/21

Tax rates and allowances can be downloaded here.

Finance Bill 2020

The Finance Bill will be published on 19 March 2020, together with explanatory notes.

Related items

• HM Treasury Spring Budget 2020.
• HM Treasury Spring Statement 2019 page
• Bishop Fleming's 2019 Spring Statement analysis: download here.

[Gary Mackley-Smith]