Building Back Better
In what will be a relief (and a little bit of a surprise) to many, today's Budget was relatively light on personal tax announcements.
Of course, the triple lock on income tax, NICs and VAT was already breached by the Health and Social Care Levy announced on 7 September.
After meaningful speculation on potential tax rises, including aligning the current 20% Capital Gains Tax (CGT) rate with the current 45% top rate of income tax, in fact there is simply to be a freeze of personal allowances up to and including 2025/26 for CGT and income tax. Further, for income tax, the higher rate threshold is also to be maintained to 2025/26 – so meaning more taxpayers will be welcomed into the higher rate.
The question of course remains: when will the tax rises it is assumed are needed to pay for the cost of pandemic support be seen, and what form will they take? Then again, the introduction of the asset holding company tax regime together with the move to allow increased corporate re domiciliation, may signal a move to make the UK an ever more attractive holding company location. In which case, could increased revenue soften anticipated tax rises?
