The Chancellor George Osborne delivered his Autumn statement on the 5th December. Here are some of the key points:
• People born after 5 April 1948 will be entitled to a basic personal allowance of £10,000 for 2014/15.
• From April 2015, a spouse or civil partner who is not liable to Income Tax or not liable above the basic rate for a tax year will be entitled to transfer £1,000 of their personal allowance to their spouse or civil partner provided that the recipient of the transfer is not liable to Income Tax above the basic rate. The transferor’s personal allowance will be reduced by £1,000. The spouse or civil partner receiving the transferred allowance will be entitled to a reduced Income Tax liability of up to £200.
• The September 2014 fuel duty increase will be cancelled saving a typical motorist £405 between now and 2015-16.
• State pension ages will increase to 68 from 2030 and then to 69 ten years later
• A cap on the increase in business rates to 2% in 2014-15 was announced and the introduction of a £1,000 business rates discount to help the high street
• Doubling the Small Business Rate Relief for a further 12 months from 1 April 2014 to help 540,000 firms
• Making it cheaper for businesses to employ young people by abolishing National Insurance contributions for under-21s earning below £813 per week
• Non residents will now have to pay Capital Gains Tax on UK property from April 2015
• The Capital Gains Tax annual allowance is frozen at £11,000 per annum and will increase to £11,100 from 2015/16.
• There were also changes to the rules for those properties which you no longer live in but were once your main residence, meaning more CGT will be due when you sell.