We have pleasure in sharing our summary of the key announcements in the Autumn Budget 2017 statement updated for announcements made in the Budget. We hope you will find it useful and interesting.

The Chancellor has announced a steady as you go Autumn Budget.

The highlight of his mildly expansionary package was a new stamp duty land tax relief for first time home-buyers (outside Scotland). As long as the consideration for the property is no more than £500,000, first time buyers will pay no SDLT on the first £300,000 and above that they pay the normal rates.

The Chancellor decided against attacking pension tax reliefs – leaving the annual allowance unchanged and actually increasing the lifetime allowance next tax year from £1 million to £1.03 million in line with inflation.

As usual the government has introduced several provisions to counter both tax avoidance and evasion. Personal service companies – IR35 – are again in the Chancellor’s sights, with a strong possibility that the tax rules recently applied to the public sector will be extended into the private sector.

If you have any questions about the summary’s contents or how any aspects of your tax and financial planning may be affected by the Budget, please call us to discuss them.

With Kind Regards

Esin Hunter