The treasury has announced that the next budget will be presented by the Chancellor, Sajid Javid, on Wednesday 11th March 2020.

In recent years, the Budget has been held in the Autumn. The Autumn Budget 2019 was postponed due to the pre-election uncertainties last year. Now that our government has a significant working majority those uncertainties have been removed. Accordingly, matters that need to be resolved for the tax year 2020-21 – certain Income Tax allowances for example – can be attended to.

It is difficult to predict what The Chancellor will include in his announced changes.

During the recent election campaigning, Boris Johnson did promise that none of the major taxes would be increased and he did announce that the promised decrease in corporation tax, 19% to 17% from April 2020, would likely be deferred.

Hopefully, there will be measures to support business owners as we transition through the EU withdrawal process. Certainly, there should be confirmation that UK businesses in receipt of EU funding will continue to receive equivalent funding from the government once the EU funding tap is turned off.

Due to the possible disruption in supply lines from the and of this month – when the transition away from the EU begins – it would be helpful if the government included supportive changes in the budget that helped UK businesses to maintain their profitability and cash flow.

Parliamentary committees will need to get their skates and resolve any debate on budget clauses as quickly as possible. There is less than 30 days between 11 March and the end of the tax year – 5 April 2020.

We will be reporting on significant changes in this blog immediately following the budget. Until then, we can probably rest easy that tax rates are unlikely to be increased.

Source: DocSafe