Unsurprisingly, given an impending election, there was a lot of political bluster and not a lot of content in this budget.
We already knew the headline grabber – a 2% cut to National Insurance Contributions for employees and the self-employed – but that doesn’t help employers, who will be faced with the increase to National Minimum Wage in April, and it also does little for fiscal drag given no change to income tax thresholds.
“While we didn’t expect anything for corporates, with full expensing and changes to R&D schemes announced in the autumn, nothing was announced on business rates, which is fundamentally a huge cost to any business, and we had hoped for more support for family and owner-managed businesses.
The 12-month freeze on alcohol duty will be welcomed by those in hospitality and also the extension of the fuel duty freeze for many businesses.
While the increase of £5,000 to the VAT threshold is welcomed it falls short of the hoped increase to £100,000 particularly given the seven-year freeze and recent inflation.
The Government is attempting to reduce UK debt so the Chancellor’s options to provide fundamental tax reductions or support were limited – but that doesn’t help the businesses that are crying out for help.
