Budget 2020: Key Takeaways

Earlier today (the 11^th March) new Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rishi Sunak, announced the 2020 budget. Being the first budget of the decade, the first of the majority conservative government and the first since the UK has left the European union, all eyes were on Rishi and his red briefcase early this afternoon.

As always, we’ve summarised all that you need to know about the budget in a few easy to read and understand points below.

Off-Payroll (IR35) reforms

The controversial private sector off-payroll reforms will go ahead from 6 April 2020. Although the chancellor did not reference the reforms in his speech directly, the ‘red book’ issued after the speech confirmed the following:

‘The government believes it is right to address the fundamental unfairness of the non-compliance with the existing rules, and the reform will therefore be legislated in Finance Bill 2020 and implemented on 6 April 2020, as previously announced.’

Entrepreneurs relief

In the lead up to the budget there was talk that changes to Entrepreneurs Relief (ER) were coming, with some comments that the chancellor would go as far as scrapping the relief entirely. Today, the chancellor announced that the relief will not be scrapped, however the lifetime limit will be reduced from £10 million to £1 million.

Tax rates

The personal allowance remains frozen at £12,500. This is the allowance before 20% tax is applied to your personal income. Also frozen is the £50,000 threshold at which individuals start to pay the higher 40% rate of income tax. The rate of corporation tax is also remaining the same at 19%. 

National Insurance

The chancellor confirmed plans to increase the threshold before employee’s national insurance contributions are due to £9,500 from 6^th April 2020, with plans to ultimately increase this to £12,500.

Increase to National Living Wage (NLW)

As already confirmed, from 6th April 2020, the NLW will increase to £8.72 from £8.21.

Pensions

The previous chancellor proposed limiting tax relief on pensions to 20%, however, prior to the budget, Mr Sunak ruled out these changes. He did, however, announce reforms to the complicated way taper relief is applied for higher earners.

Use of Home as Office Claim

Outlined in the paperwork is that the flat rate claim for working from home will from April 2020 increase from £4 per week to £6 per week.

For more information on previous budget announcements, visit our Budget Report page.

Update: at the time this article was written, the off-payroll (IR35) reforms were due to be implemented on the 6^th April 2020. On the 17^th March 2020, the UK government announced that it would be deferring the reforms to the 6^th April 2021 to help businesses and individuals during the COVID-19 crisis.