Key announcements from the Autumn Statement 2024

After months of speculation, we finally know what this big Budget includes. It appears we also know who has the broadest shoulders: business owners, ultra high net worth individuals and investors, but thankfully there is some relief for small business owners.

Before discussing the changes and how they will affect you and your business affairs in detail, here are some thoughts.

• Yes, it feels unfair.
• Yes, it’s going to hurt financially.
• It actually wasn’t as bad as it the media said it was going to be.

However, UK Business owners are resilient. We’ve got through much tougher stuff in the past.

A good first step is to book a call with us to discuss the impact of this budget on your payroll, profitability, 2025 business plan and forecast, as well as eventual exit plans for your business. We are here to help you.

Let’s now go into details:

Your wage bill is going up

The Government announced the following changes to the National Minimum Wage which will apply from the 1st April 2025:

• National Living Wage (21 and over): up by 77p to ￡12.21 per hour
• 18-20 Year Old Rate: up by ￡1.40 to ￡10.00 per hour
• 16-17 Year Old and Apprentice Rate: up by ￡1.15 to ￡7.55 per hour

This means if you employ someone over the age of 21 to work 40 hours per week, on the National Living Wage their salary would be ￡25,396.80. Then you have National Insurance and pension costs on top of that.

On top of the rise of the national minimum wage, the government announced changes to Employer National Insurance contributions. The amount of NI contributions employers pay is also increasing, and the point at which Employer Contributions are due has also decreased. At this point you could be forgiven in thinking, that’s a triple whammy.

Employer National Insurance Contributions now are set at 15% - up from 13.8%, with the threshold that businesses will now start paying for employees when their salary gets to ￡5,000 - not ￡9,100.

However, the government has decided to cushion the impact of the increase in Employer National Insurance Contributions by increasing the annual Employment Allowance from ￡5,000 to ￡10,500. This means that most of the micro and small businesses could see a reduction in their Employee NI costs.

For example, if your payroll monthly was ￡10,000 and every employee was above the salary threshold of ￡5,000, then your NIC payments would reduce by over ￡3,000 across the year.

However, if you are a single director/shareholder company with no other employees, you are not eligible for Employment Allowance. This means that if you take a salary of ￡12,570 per year, your Employers’ NI contributions will go up in April from ￡39.90 to ￡94.63 per month.

Action:

1. Review your wages: Whose pay needs to go up in line with the national minimum wage? Whose pay must also increase to remain fair, given the rise in the lowest-paid team members' wage?
2. Review your costs and business model: Do you need to change how you resource your business? For example, is the balance of contractors vs permanent employees right? Would you be better off as a sole trader rather than trading via a limited company?
3. Review your operations to find efficiencies: How can your business use technology or slicker working practices to avoid hiring more permanent employees?
4. Consider your pricing and review your business plans and forecasts.

How will you pay yourself?

It’s all change. Actually, it’s been all change for a number of years now. In years gone by, it was far more efficient to pay directors a nominal amount via PAYE then the remainder via dividends. ?There is no optimum plan that fits everyone, please discuss this with us.

There was no announced change to basic, higher or additional rates of income tax, employee NICs or dividend tax rates or credits for 25/26. Basic rate income tax is still 20% vs dividend tax basic rate at 8.75%. Will paying yourself via PAYE or putting more aside into pensions be more tax-efficient in the short and long-term?

Capital Gains Tax Increases with immediate effect

It was predicted that Capital Gains Tax would go up in this budget. It did, but not as much as feared.

• Capital gains tax: lower rate increases from 10% to 18%
• Capital gains tax: higher rate increases from 20 to 24%

Capital Gains Tax rates for Business Asset Disposal Relief, i.e. selling your business, and Investors’ Relief, i.e. investing in other businesses, will rise gradually to 14% from 6 April 2025 and match the main lower rate of 18% from 6 April 2026, to allow business owners a little time to adjust to the changes.

The lifetime limit for Investors’ Relief will be reduced to ￡1 million for all qualifying disposals made on or after 30 October 2024, matching the lifetime limit for Business Asset Disposal Relief.

These new rates will match the residential property rates, which are not changing.

What does this mean? It means that, going forward, you are going to be more heavily taxed if you sell an asset or come into some money. Whether this means shares, business, property, inheritance or something else. It also means that getting independent advice on your tax affairs is even more important now than ever. We can help you with this.

Inheritance tax

The current inheritance tax thresholds are due to be frozen until April 2028, and the government is extending these threshold freezes for a further two years to April 2030.

The government is also removing the opportunity for individuals to use pensions as a vehicle for inheritance tax planning by bringing unspent pots into the scope of inheritance tax from April 2027.

The government will reform agricultural property relief and business property relief from April 2026. In addition to existing nil-rate bands and exemptions, the 100% rate of relief will continue for the first ￡1 million of combined agricultural and business assets to help protect family farms and businesses, and will be 50% thereafter. The government will also reduce the rate of business property relief to 50% in all circumstances for shares designated as “not listed” on the markets of a recognised stock exchange, such as AIM.

Business rates

There is further help for the retail, hospitality and leisure sector. Businesses in this sector will enjoy the small business multiplier (the amount used to work out your business rates bill) being frozen at 49.9p. Then when the current 75% reduction in rates ends at the end of this tax year, a 40% reduction in business rates up to a ￡110k cash cap.

Driving and fuel costs

The 5p temporary cut to fuel duty is being extended into the 25/26 tax year.

Company car tax rates have now been set for until 29/30. It’s still going to be much more tax efficient to have an electric car, but not as much as before.

Fully electric cars Benefit in Kind rises to 7% in 28/29.

However, the hybrid car Benefit in Kind in 28/29 rises to 18% and in line with the new company car BIK tax rates for petrol and diesel cars.

Zero emission cars will pay the lowest first year rate at ￡10 until 2029-30

Immediate changes to stamp duty

Stamp duty is going up from 3% to 5% for those buying second homes, buy-to-let residential properties and companies purchasing residential properties. However, if the property is worth over ￡500,000 and being bought by a company then stamp duty will rise to 17% from 15%.

Non-domicile tax regime is being scrapped

The government is removing the non-dom tax regime from the tax system and replacing it with a new residence-based regime from 6 April 2025.

Individuals who opt-in to the new regime will not pay UK tax on foreign income and gains (FIG) for the first four years of tax residence. From 6 April 2025 the government will introduce a new residence based system for Inheritance Tax (IHT), ending the use of offshore trusts to shelter assets from IHT, and scrapping the planned 50% reduction in foreign income subject to tax in the first year of the new regime.

These changes mean that it pays to get advice on your tax affairs if your income and capital gains come from both inside and outside of the UK.

Closing the tax gap

The government is recruiting an additional 5,000 compliance staff – with the first 200 starting training in November – and providing funding for 1,800 debt management staff. This will ensure more of the tax that is owed is paid and that more taxpayers pay outstanding tax due. ?They are investing in modernising IT and data systems to improve HMRC’s productivity and improve taxpayers’ experience of dealing with the tax system, delivering the modern and digital service businesses and individuals expect.

The government is also committed to taking stronger action on tax fraud, including by expanding HMRC’s criminal investigation work and legislating to prevent abuse in non-compliant umbrella companies.

As always, we recommend our clients to take out Tax Investigation Insurance to protect against the costs of an HMRC enquiry which can be stressful and time-consuming. ?Contact us if you would like further details.

Next steps

Please do fully research and take professional advice before acting on any of the information provided here, and we are always happy to help.