UK Budget 2021: key business points.

We appreciate that business owners are short of time and want technical advice tailored to their needs, and so we invite you to get in touch to discuss how the Budget changes might affect you and your business.

 

In the meantime here is a brief summary of the business proposals.

1. Employers will welcome the extension Furlough for a further five months, until the end of September. An employer contribution towards the cost of unworked hours will be phased in from July.

2. On a similar basis, the self-employed income support scheme will be extended until September. It is expected that many more people will qualify this time. There will be changes to the qualifying conditions.

3. Some small companies will escape the planned rise in Corporation Tax. Company profits above £250,000 will pay 25% tax (19% at present) from April 2023; profits below £50,000 will continue at 19%: a sliding scale will apply between £50,000 and £250,000.

4. A new super-deduction will apply from 01-4-2021 until 31-03-2023 which will encourage companies to invest in plant and machinery by giving 130% first-year capital allowance to off-set against company taxable profits. Long life assets will qualify for 50% first-year allowance.

5. Non-domestic rates relief will continue (terms and duration vary between England and Scotland).

6. Restart grants will be available in England to help non-essential retail to safely reopen. A similar grant will probably be introduced for Scotland.

7. A new Recovery Loan Scheme will start from 06-04-2021. Loans will be available from £25,000 to £10 million. Government support for these loans is not as generous as the current Covid business loans. The existing Bounce Back and CBIL loans close to new applications from 31-03-201.

8. If your business does incur a trading loss it could utilize the new extension to the loss carry-back provision which has been extended from 1 year to 3 years. Applies to unincorporated businesses and companies for 2020-21 and 2021-22.

9. The Taxpayer Protection Taskforce will be a team of 1,265 HMRC staff dedicated to combating fraud within the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (Furlough) and the self-employed income support scheme.

10. Freeports will be introduced within the four devolved nations. Attractive incentives will be available for businesses that operate within these Freeports. It is unfortunate that the incentive rules will not uniform throughout the UK. They are expected to start some time this year: the decision on which ports have been successful is due to be made “in the Spring”.

11. To help recruit top talent from overseas to work within tech and scientific sectors, a new visa scheme will open from March 2022. This will include an elite points-based visa to enable UK scale-up businesses to recruit the scarce top talent.

We will return to a number of these points with more detail once the Budget proposals have been confirmed as law. Many changes take place between a Budget statement and the formal Act which changes the law.

Remember to get in touch to discuss how these Budget proposals might affect you and your business.