Autumn Budget 2024 At A Glance for Business & Entrepreneurs

Published by Admin on 30 October 202430 October 2024

Here’s our summary of the most salient budget announcements today pertinent to businesses and entrepreneurs:

The national minimum wage for those aged 21 years and over will rise by 6.6% in April 2025 from £11.44 to £12.21 per hour. Apprentices and under 18s are set to get an increase of 18% with pay increasing from £6.40 an hour to £7.55 an hour. Pay for those aged 18 to 20 is set to go up by 16.3% from £8.60 to £10 an hour.
National Insurance on employers will rise by 1.2 per cent to 15 per cent as part of a £25 billion tax raid on firms through this levy. The Secondary Threshold – the level at which employers start paying national insurance on each employee’s salary – will be reduced from £9,100 per year to £5,000.
The Employment Allowance will rise from £5,000 to £10,500 which Ms Reeves stressed would mean 865,000 employers won’t pay any National Insurance at all next year and over 1 million will pay the same or less as they did previously.

Corporate Tax Roadmap to be published today – CT to be kept at 25%.Capital Gains Tax rates on carried interest will be increased to 32% from April 2025 with further reforms the following year.
EIS to remain until 2035.
The lower rate of Capital Gains Tax will rise from 10% to 18%, and the Higher Rate from 20% to 24%, while maintaining the rates of capital gains tax on residential property at 18% and 24%.

Business Rates – 40% relief for small businesses next year.
From 2026-27, the Treasury intends to introduce two permanently lower tax rates for retail, hospitality and leisure properties, paid for by a higher multiplier for the most valuable properties. There will be 40% relief on business rates for the retail, hospitality and leisure industry in 2025-26 up to a cap of £110,000 per business.

At the same time, the Treasury is maintaining the lifetime limit for Business Asset Disposal Relief at £1m to encourage entrepreneurs to invest in their businesses. Business Asset Disposal Relief will remain at 10% this year before rising to 14% in April 2025 and 18% from 2026-27…overall the changes are expected to be raising £2.5 billion.

The Chancellor decided against freezing the thresholds for paying income tax beyond 2027/28 and they will instead rise by inflation afterwards.

GDP growth is forecast to be 1.1% in 2024, 2.0% in 2025, 1.8% in 2026, 1.5% in 2027, 1.5% in 2028 and 1.6% in 2029. Inflation, under the CPI measure, is set to average 2.5% this year, 2.6% in 2025, then 2.3% in 2026, 2.1% in 2027, 2.1% in 2028 and 2.0% in 2029.

VAT on private education to be introduced from January 2025 and business rates relief to be removed.
The 5p cut in fuel duty was kept for another year.Draught duty will be reduced by 1.7% to cut a penny off a pint in the pub.
Alcohol duty rates on non-draught products will increase in line with RPI from February next year.

You can view the full budget by clicking HERE.

YOUR OPPORTUNITY TO ASK THE EXPERTS

If you’re interested in hearing the thoughts, expert opinions and future predictions for business and the economy and funding and investment in Scotland, as well as the budget announcements, why not join us at our Conference next week? There will be ample opportunity to ask your most pertinent questions in two highly interactive sessions, as well as hear from 6 of Scotland’s most outstanding entrepreneurs and fireside chats with 2 inspiring, entertaining and engaging guests.

Click HERE to find out more about the Conference and book your ticket(s).

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