2016 Budget Highlights

Personal Allowance to increase to £11,500 in 2017/18
Higher rate tax band to increase to £45,000 from 2017/18
Class 2 NICs for self-employed abolished from April 2018
Termination of payments of more than £30,000 will be subject to employer NICs
A new Property Allowance and Trading Allowance will exempt the first £1,000 of trading and the first £1,000 of property income from having to be declared and no tax will be payable on these elements
VAT registration threshold will rise to £83,000 from 1 April 2016
The current £150 Income Tax and NI relief for employer arranged pension advice to increase to £500 from April 2017

Corporation Tax to be cut to 17% in 2020
Business rates to be cut for all properties in England from next year
Tax on all businesses paying rates will effectively be cut from April 2020 as these rates will index in line with CPI instead of the higher RPI
Insurance Premium Tax to increase to 10%. Revenue will be used to fund flood defences

Higher rate of CGT to be cut from 28% to 20% and the basic rate from 18% to 10% from April 2016 (exc. Residential property)
Entrepreneur’s Relief extended and back dated to 18 March 2015
Introducing a lifetime limit of £100,000 on the CGT exempt gains that a person can make on the disposal of shares acquired under Employee Shareholder Agreements entered into after 16 March 2016

Pensions industry tasked with setting up a Pensions Dashboard by 2019 so individuals can easily keep track of all their pension plans in one place
Serious Ill Health Lump Sums will be allowed to be paid from crystallised funds as well as those that are not yet crystallised
A rule that forced dependants to take inherited pension funds as a lump sum age 23 has been amended by the government to that it falls in line with policy intentions

ISA limit to increase to £20,000 in April 2017
New Lifetime ISA will be introduced from 6 April 2017 for under 40s with an annual limit of £4,000 along with a government bonus of 25%. Contributions can continue into this plan until age 50. This can be used to help with the purchase of a home after 12 months from setting up the plan subject to a property limit of £450,000. Or the funds can be withdrawn to provide for retirement from age 60. Further consideration will be given to whether the funds can be accessed for any other purposes, although perhaps subject to a 5% charge and the removal of interest as well as the government bonus. Decisions will also need to be made on whether borrowing from the plan will be allowed, in line with the rules for US retirement plans.
Help-to-buy ISAs will continue to be available until November 2019. Those with existing Help-to-buy ISAs can transfer these funds into the new Lifetime ISA in the 2017/18 tax year and still contribute up to the £4,000 limit in that year.
New Help to Save scheme to be introduced to allow those on low incomes to save up to £50pm along with a government bonus of 50%

Consultation to be entered into on the possibility of introducing a Pension Advice Allowance. This will allow clients under 55 to take up £500 tax free from their DC pension plan to help pay for retirement advice.
Money Advice Service to close

Fuel Duty frozen
Duty on beers, spirits and cider frozen. Other alcohol duties to rise in line with inflation
To tackle the health impact of smoking, tobacco duty escalator to continue to rise faster than inflation.
Sugar Tax introduced on soft drinks – revenue to be used for funding school sports

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