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Download a detailed guide to the key tax changes announced in the Chancellor’s Spring Budget 2024

In a rather combative presentation, Chancellor Jeremy Hunt delivered what is widely expected to be the last budget statement before the general election. With limited headroom and the now usual trail or announcements in the lead up to his commons speech, there were no big surprises arising from this budget. Even the 2p reduction in the National Insurance contribution paid by employees, which was supposed to be his big curtain call announcement, had already been ‘leaked’ before the budget.

Former United States Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfeld might have called Covid an ‘unknown, unknown.’ Nobody saw it coming and when it arrived nobody knew how to react. It was, in economic terms a black swan. Back to the present day and Mr Rumsfeld would probably say, when considering the outlook for 2024, we have a series of known unknowns facing us.

On Wednesday 22nd November 2023, Chancellor Jeremy Hunt delivered his Autumn Statement. With an election now on the horizon, he was always going to be hunting for some headlines whilst acknowledging that living costs are still high, inflation is still more than double its target rate of 2%, borrowing and debt remain at near record levels and wars rumble on in Ukraine and the Middle East, creating uncertainty and nervousness in global markets. So, what did he announce and what does it mean for you?

The 2023 Autumn Statement is due to be delivered on Wednesday 22nd November. We look at what might be announced by the chancellor.

The freeze on income tax thresholds is creating a series of tax cliff edge situations for middle income earners according to analysts. The Chancellor has made clear that the income tax thresholds will not change for a ‘few years’ meaning thousands of people are finding themselves paying more tax as their pay increases move them into the next bracket or create effective tax rates through loss of other income streams.

How on earth do you deliver an economy boosting budget when there’s no spare cash for headline grabbing giveaways, you have double digit inflation, you may or may not be heading into a recession, there’s war in Europe and the country is still struggling to recover from the impact of Brexit and the Covid pandemic? That was the uphill challenge facing Chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, when he stood up on 15th March to deliver his Spring Budget.

The Chancellor’s budget announcement that personal allowances and the threshold for the higher rate tax band will be frozen until April 2028, will see thousands more individuals paying higher levels of tax as a result. It is estimated that the move will see more than 200,000 (two-hundred-thousand) individuals moving into the higher rate tax band alone.

If there’s one thing the recent hokey cokey of Chancellors and fiscal policy has achieved it has to be a rigorous testing of our sentiment towards taxation. Whilst it is hard to imagine that anyone has found this funny or even useful for personal and commercial planning purposes, as a research case study it provides tremendous insight on public opinion and our threshold for taxation.

There was a lot announced in the mini budget that took place on Friday 23rd September 2022 and it has had a significant impact on markets and currencies ever since.
Our summary of the full statement, helps you understand all of the changes, when they will come into effect and how they might apply to your personal or commercial circumstances.

So, now we know who the winner of the Conservative Party Leadership race and new Prime Minister is, what can we expect from them in terms of tax and spending?

The Chancellor, Rishi Sunak, delivered his 2022 Spring Statement on 23rd March, reducing fuel duty and making some concessions on taxes. Read more and download our FREE Guide here.