Budget 2024: Key points at a glance

Personal taxes

• Rates of income tax and National Insurance (NI) paid by employees, and of VAT, to remain unchanged

• Income tax band thresholds to rise in line with inflation after 2028, preventing more people being dragged into higher bands as wages rise

• Basic rate capital gains tax on profits from selling shares to increase from 10% to 18%, with the higher rate rising from 20% to 24%

• Rates on profits from selling additional property unchanged

• Inheritance tax threshold freeze extended by further two years to 2030, with unspent pension pots also subject to the tax from 2027

• Exemptions when inheriting farmland to be made less generous from 2026

Business taxes

• Companies to pay NI at 15% on salaries above £5,000 from April, up from 13.8% on salaries above £9,100, raising an additional £25 bn a year

• Employment allowance - which allows smaller companies to reduce their NI liability to increase from £5,000 to £10,500

• Tax paid by private equity managers on share of profits from successful deals to rise from up to 28% to up to 32% from April

• Main rate of corporation tax, paid by businesses on taxable profits over £250,000, to stay at 25% until next election

Wages, benefits and pensions

• Legal minimum wage for over-21 is to rise from £11.44 to £12.21 per hour from April

• Rate for 18 to 20-year-olds to go up from £8.60 to £10, as part of a long-term plan to move towards a "single adult rate"

• Basic and new state pension payments to go up by 4.1% next year due to the "triple lock", more than working age benefits

• Eligibility widened for the allowance paid to full-time carers, by increasing the maximum earnings threshold from £151 to £195 a week

Transport

• 5p cut in fuel duty on petrol and diesel brought in by the Conservatives, due to end in April 2025, kept for another year

• £2 cap on single bus fares in England to rise to £3 from January, outside London and Greater Manchester

• Commitment to fund tunneling work to take HS2 high-speed rail line to Euston station in central London

• Government says it will "secure the delivery" of TransPennine rail upgrade between York and Manchester, after reports ministers were looking to cut costs

• Air Passenger Duty to go up in 2026, by £2 for short-haul economy flights and £12 for long-haul ones, with rates for private jets to go up by 50%

• Extra £500 m next year to repair potholes in England

• Vehicle Excise Duty paid by owners of all but the most efficient new petrol cars to double in their first year, to encourage shift to electric vehicles

Drinking and smoking

• New flat-rate tax of £2.20 per 10ml of vaping liquid introduced from October 2026, as ministers shelve Tory plans to link the levy to nicotine content

• Tax on tobacco to increase by 2% above inflation, and 10% above inflation for hand-rolling tobacco

• Tax on non-draught alcoholic drinks to increase by the higher RPI measure of inflation, but tax on draught drinks cut by 1.7%

• Government to review thresholds for sugar tax on soft drinks, and consider extending it to "milk-based" beverages

Government spending and public services

• Day to day spending on NHS and education in England to rise by 4.7% in real terms this year, before smaller rises next year

• Defense spending to rise by £2.9 bn next year

• Home Office budget to shrink by 3.1% this year and 3.3% next year in real terms, due to assumed savings from asylum system

• £1.3 bn extra funding next year for local councils, which will also keep all cash from Right to Buy sales from next month

Housing

• Social housing providers to be allowed to increase rents above inflation under multi-year settlement

• Discounts for social housing tenants buying their property under the Right to Buy scheme to be reduced

• Stamp duty surcharge, paid on second home purchases in England and Northern Ireland, to go up from 3% to 5%

• Point at which house buyers start paying stamp duty on a main home to drop from £250,000 to £125,000 in April, reversing a previous tax cut

• Threshold at which first-time buyers pay the tax will also drop back, from £425,000 to £300,000

• Current affordable homes budget, which runs until 2026, boosted by £500 m

For further details contact Amin & Co Accountants at 0161 224 3510