On 30 October 2024, Chancellor Rachel Reeves presented her first budget to parliament. This was a budget intended to restore stability to our economy and to begin a decade of national renewal.
Announced the day before Halloween, the Autumn Budget was expected to spook businesses with the rumours circulating weeks before the big day about tax rises and a hike to employer’s national insurance. It was a Budget full of tricks rather than treats. Rachel Reeves is banking that the substantial Budget will be enough to revive the economy, and the public finances will be in a different state in a year.
Among the tax measures announced in the Autumn Budget speech were:
- increasing employer’s national insurance by 1.2 percentage points to 15% from April 2025
- reducing the secondary threshold on each employee’s salary from £9,100 a year to £5,000
- increasing the employment allowance from £5,000 to £10,500
- further investment and modernisation for HMRC
- freeze fuel duty at 5p for another year
- increasing the lower rate of CGT from 10% to 18% and the higher rate from 20% to 24%
- business asset disposal relief will remain at 10% this year, before rising to 14% in April 2025, and to 18% from 2026/27
- confirmed VAT on school fees
- no extension to the personal tax threshold freeze
- an increase to national living wage from £11.44 to £12.21 an hour from April 2025
- a confirmation that the VAT on private-school fees was going ahead
- increasing the energy profits levy on oil and gas companies to 38%
- increasing alcohol duty rates on non-draft products in line with RPI from February
- removing the “outdated concept” of domicile from the tax system from April 2025
- increasing the rate of air passenger duty by a further 50%
- increasing capital gains rates on carried interest to 32% from April 2025
- increasing the stamp duty land tax surcharge for second homes to 5%.
Our Budget report summarises all the key announcements from the Autumn Budget and how they may impact you.
