Please note this content was written contemporaneously, and may well now be superseded
Nothing stunning came out of the Chancellor’s Autumn statement.
A few bits that will affect some clients :
* Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT) to be increased by 3% on all buy to let properties, and second homes, from April 2016. This comes on the back of the budget announcement on restrictions to mortgage interest relief for buy to let landlords. The Chancellor is keen to restrict buy to lets in order to free up more of the housing stock to home ownership.
* No changes to tax credits
* Tougher penalties to be introduced to tackle tax evasion and rules abuse
* Delay to introduction of diesel company car supplement, to 2020/21
* Government grants to small businesses to be gradually replaced by government loans
* Small Business Rates Relief to be extended for another year
* Increase in allowances for childcare – further details will come out in January
Surprisingly (or not?) -no announcements about Personal Service Companies. The rumours in the national press, which appeared to be around “leaked” documents, did not materialise into anything. This is not to say that the government will not continue their efforts to further enforce IR35, but there has been no announcement about introducing a maximum engagement period rule, or any other new rule. If this was afoot, it would almost certainly have been mooted in this statement.
We will continue to analyse the statement, and keep you informed if anything comes out of our analysis that we haven’t picked up on today.