Written immediately after the Chancellor of the Exchequer delivered his Pre Budget Speech, this Report covers the principal business and personal taxation announcements.
Most taxation changes take effect from the start of the financial year, or tax year, but this is not always the case. The Chancellor has also announced changes which will not take effect until 2005, or later. Where relevant, details of these changes have been included in this Report.
Also included throughout this guide to Budget changes are a number of planning pointers. However, tax and financial planning should not be left until the end of the tax or financial year - rather it should be an ongoing process, with your plans being kept under review. With our help, you can plan for a rewarding and financially secure future, reassess your plans regularly, and adapt them as your personal and business circumstances change.
The Chancellor has outlined a number of key measures in his Pre-Budget Report.
These include:
- The provision of an additional £50 a week from employers towards approved childcare places – free of employee NI and income tax, and employer NI
- A 13% increase in Child Tax Credit, which amounts to an additional £180 a year
- A widening of R & D tax credits, and the introduction of a fund for enterprise capital
- The provision of compulsory skills courses for the long-term unemployed
- The allocation of 100% investment allowances for the purposes of renovating vacant business properties
- The scrapping of 147 business regulations
- A possible stamping of spirits, and a continued freezing of duty on spirits
- Plans to introduce 80% rate relief for community sports clubs.
Gordon Brown also announced the allocation of an additional £500m to the Iraq war and to combat terrorism, to be followed by a further £300m next year.
Date:10th-December-2003
The Institute of Directors has voiced its concerns that the Chancellor’s economic forecasts of 3%-3.5% growth in 2004 and 2005, announced in today’s Pre-Budget Report, are optimistic.
The IoD warned that should the Chancellor’s growth predictions not be met, he could be forced into increasing the tax burden.
Meanwhile, the Institute welcomed the Chancellor’s announcements on enterprise.
George Cox, director general of the IoD, said, ‘We welcome the moves to stimulate enterprise and the growth of small businesses. We appreciate that at last there is a growing reaction that over-regulation is stifling business and we are pleased to see that the Government is beginning to respond to our members’ strong concerns about the red tape burden’.
The Federation of Small Businesses also welcomed the measures aimed at cutting red tape, although it expressed reservations about whether such promises would be delivered.
The FSB urged the Government to ‘bear down hard’ on the European Commission and to ensure that the perspective of small businesses is taken into account.
Digby Jones, director general of the Confederation of British Industry, said, 'Business will be delighted that the Chancellor is starting to address the financing gap. The extension of capital allowances and audit thresholds will be welcome to our enterprise sector'.
Date:10th-December-2003