Here we go again! And the next one is on…….  Wednesday 22 November at 12.30pm. This is the first of what will become an annual autumn Budget, and replaces the Spring Budget and the former Autumn Statement. It will now become the main announcement of tax and fiscal changes each year. Of course, this year is slightly different. We’ve already had a Budget in March,…

The Government has announced that it intends to reintroduce the provisions withdrawn from the pre-election Finance Bill in a new Bill as soon as possible after the summer recess. Parliament returns on 5 September and we expect to see the new Bill published soon after that. You may recall that as part of the announcements in the Queen’s Speech, it was stated that three Finance…

I write this just after the Prime Minister has announced that she will seek a snap General Election on 8 June. Customarily, I do not comment on political issues, but in this case I believe that it will have such an impact on the economy, the business world, and stability in general that a brief comment is necessary. In my view, the world has far…

The Headlines This Budget could be re-named an attack on the self-employed and SMEs, especially those in traditional manufacturing, construction and service industries! It could have been worse, but we’re struggling to see how. It’s a give with one hand and take away with the other. Larger companies, the employed and those in high-tech industries have got off very lightly. Class 4 NICs (self-employed NICs)…

The Chancellor, Philip Hammond, present his first Budget on 8 March. It is the first of two this year, and the last to be held in the Spring. The Budget then moves to the Autumn, so we’ll have a second Budget this year in October/November. We don’t expect this Budget to be very exciting, for three main reasons. First, there was an Autumn Statement only…

The Chancellor’s comments during the Autumn Statement about it being his first and last one have caused some confusion. Let us explain what is happening… Maybe to announce his Chancellorship with a fanfare, or maybe because it might just make sense, the new Chancellor decided to do away with the Autumn Statement and just have one annual Budget (except in 2017 when there will be…

The Chancellor has presented his first, and last, Autumn Statement. His closing announcement was that from 2017, the main fiscal Budget will be in the Autumn, well in advance of the new tax year, with a brief Spring Statement which will be a response to the OBR forecast, rather than making significant fiscal changes. There will be a Budget in spring 2017, followed by a…

The Autumn Statement is on Wednesday 23 November 2016.  Some clues as to what the Chancellor is thinking can be gleaned from recent Social Media pronouncements.  Will it be the last? The Chancellor, Philip Hammond, recently questioned the need for one. But we know there will be one this year, and post-Brexit decision, post US elections, and post new Prime Minister, it will surely be…

The Chancellor presents his first Autumn Statement on Wednesday 23 November. But do business owners really care? The answer is a resounding “no” but they should care. In recent years, the Autumn Statement has become a second Budget. In fact, in recent years there’s probably been more detailed changes in the Statement than in the Spring Budget. And as this will be the first opportunity…

The Chancellor, Philip Hammond, will present his first Autumn Statement on 23 November. As always, we will be following the Statement closely and issuing Tweets and a post-Statement summary with our views. What do we expect to see? It has been widely leaked that the Chancellor is unlikely to adopt George Osborne’s promise of cutting the main rate of corporation tax to 15%. Mr Hammond…