Hammonds ‘Balanced approach’ – the key points:
Business
- £500m to go towards a 5G mobile network, fibre broadband and AI
- 1% increase in Benefit in Kind on diesel company cars
- Vehicle Excise Duty to go up by 1 band from 2018 on cars that don’t meet the standard
Northern Ireland
- Extra £650m to be available to NI executive
Living Wage
- From April 2018 Living Wage to increase from £7.50 to £7.83
(4.4% increase)
Excise duty on cigarettes & Alcohol
- Minimum duty on cigarettes will increase by 2% above retail price index
- Duty on most ciders, wines, beers and spirits will be frozen
- High strength white ciders to be increased
Fuel duty
- Fuel duty rise scheduled for April 2018 has been cancelled – Fuel duty will now be frozen
Taxation
- Personal tax free allowance to increase to £11,850 from April 2018
- Basic rate tax band to be extended – 40% tax threshold rises to £46,350 from April 2018
- 1% increase on Benefit in Kind on diesel company cars
VAT
- VAT registration threshold will not be reduced for the next two years, and will be maintained at £85,000.
- Clamp down on VAT fraud committed by on-line retailers
Property
First-time buyers – stamp duty abolished on homes up to £300,000.
Technology
-
- £20bn of new investment in UK knowledge-intensive industries.
- £2.5bn from the business bank.
- Encourage pension fund investment
- Boost to Enterprise Investment Schemes.
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