Expert view – Tax Partner, on the Spring Budget 2017

Posted: 10 / 03 / 2017

The first of two Budgets for 2017 took place Wednesday 8th March, 2017 and saw the Chancellor Exchequer, Phillip Hammond, announce his first full Budget speech to the House of Commons.

The ‘Last’ Spring Budget delivered by Philip Hammond yesterday eiterated the government’s desire to make the tax system fairer and they want to stop businesses simply setting up companies to reduce their tax liability.

The tax changes announced in this Budget were once again kept to a minimum with the Chancellor taking the opportunity to confirm a number of changes that were previously announced in the Autumn statement or earlier.

We sat down with our Tax Partner, David Evans, to see what his thoughts on the Budget announcements are.

EXPERT VIEW – DAVID EVANS

A Bright Future from Spreadsheet Phil

From the man known to many as Spreadsheet Phil, this was a Budget to “prepare Britain for a brighter future” and to build “the foundations of a stronger, fairer, more global Britain”. Compared to previous Spring Budgets, this was somewhat tame with only a handful of tax announcements. Perhaps this is a sign that the Chancellor will save more widespread changes for the new Autumn Budget expected later this year.

The headline grabbers were the increase to National Insurance for the self-employed and the reduction in the dividend allowance. Over recent years the Government have shouted about how they want Britain to be entrepreneurial and yet these changes introduce further burden on small businesses; owner managed companies and the self-employed will see a tax increase from April 2018. This will affect a fair few people as we’ve seen a huge rise in the numbers of self-employed workers over the past few years.

On a more positive note, after significant lobbying from various sources, it was good news that Mr Hammond has decided to delay the implementation of Making Tax Digital for small businesses and landlords under the VAT registration threshold. HMRC’s Making Tax Digital policy has largely been seen as placing an additional administrative burden on small businesses. The decision to delay the implementation for these small businesses is a welcome one as it will give them time to prepare and it will allow the Government to increase the publicity around Making Tax Digital.

We will be working with our clients over the coming months to explain the implications and to help them prepare for Making Tax Digital.