After months of political upheaval, the delivery of reforms to tackle spiralling inflation and the cost of living crisis were long overdue. To do that, the new chancellor, Kwasi Kwarteng, has completely switched the government's focus from redistribution and balancing the books, to promoting aggressive economic growth to try and shock the economy back into life. As such he delivered a "mini" budget that was anything but "mini".
The Key Points (we'll be releasing more details as they become available, especially on the changes to IR35) :-
Basic Rate of income tax to be cut from April 2023 from 20% to 19%
The 1.25% increase in National Insurance has been reversed from November, as has the proposed dividend tax increase from next April
The additional rate 45% band for income tax will be scrapped entirely, meaning that the higher rate of income tax will be 40% on all income above £50,000
Next years increase in Corporation Tax has been cancelled. Corporation tax will remain at 19%
The nil Stamp Duty threshold will increase from £125,000 to £250,000
Planned increases in duty rates for beer, wine and cider will be cancelled
IR35 - plans announced to reverse and simplify this from April 2023 will be welcome news for contractors and small businesses
The annual investment allowance will be made permanent at £1m - supporting capital investment