Accountants, business and financial advisers, Armstrong Watson, has moved into a new home in Newcastle’s multi-million-pound smart office One Strawberry Lane.
Despite intense pressure to cut taxes in his first Spring Budget, the Chancellor resisted, and while he seemed to deliver a fiscal plan that promised to stimulate growth.
While there was little of real interest for farmers in the Spring Budget, there was a big announcement regarding tax relief known as “full expensing”, which will offer some businesses more tax relief when purchasing machinery and equipment.
To replace the super deduction tax relief, companies will be able to claim 100% relief on qualifying capital expenditure, such as IT equipment and plant and machinery, without any cap for the next 3 years.
Despite intense pressure to cut taxes in his first Spring Budget, the Chancellor resisted, and while he seemed to deliver a fiscal plan that promised to stimulate growth, as we look at the detailed proposals it is clear some of his announcements aren’t quite as generous as they first appear and will have relatively limited impact on most small and medium-sized businesses.
When the Chancellor Jeremy Hunt stood up today to give his first Budget speech, the hope for most motor dealers was that, despite all indications to the contrary, the unpopular corporation tax rise to 25% would be abolished. Unfortunately, this was not the case. What we got instead was a statement centred on economic growth through what he called his “four Es” – employment, education, enterprise and everywhere.
In the run-up to a budget there is always speculation around tax relief on contributions, tax-free cash from pension pots and the age you can access your pension. In this budget, it came as a big surprise that none of this really featured but instead there were changes for those wanting to save for retirement.
As expected the Chancellor made no new announcements in relation to income tax, capital gains or Inheritance Tax in his Spring Budget, focusing instead on the country’s productivity issues, with measures to get people back into work.
The government has previously stated its intention to reform the tax relief that is provided to companies undertaking R&D and, in line with the last few fiscal events (Budgets and Autumn Statements), the Chancellor has added yet more changes to the relief for small and medium (“SME”) sized companies.