Budget 2012: what it means for you

Chancellor George Osborne’s 2012 Budget statement was arguably the most leaked in history. But while there may have been few surprises around announcements such as the abolition of the 50p tax rate and the increase in the tax-free income tax threshold, we now know when they will come into effect.

Let’s take a look at how the major announcements affect different groups of people and when the measures will be implemented:

Related link: Full coverage of the UK Budget 2012]

All workers

The tax-free personal allowance on income tax was due to rise to £10,000 by 2015 – a key Liberal Democrat election pledge. The allowance will increase to £8,105 from this April. But, from next April, the amount will increase to £9,205, as the Chancellor delivers on Nick Clegg’s request to “go further and faster”.

But the basic rate limit will be reduced from £34,370 to £32,245 in April 2013, so people earning over £41,450 will get a quarter of the benefit of basic rate taxpayers. This cut is funding the increase of the Child Benefit threshold to £50,000.

And 20 million of us who pay income tax will receive an annual personal tax statement from 2014/15 showing how much tax and National Insurance we pay and where it goes. This initiative is reported to be costing £800,000 a year and will eventually be rolled out to all taxpayers.

Graphic: Government income and spending at a glance

Motorists

Another cut or freeze in fuel duty was by no means a certainty and it didn’t materialise, so the 3p increase in fuel duty planned for August will go ahead. Vehicle excise duty will increase in line with the Retail Prices Index measure of inflation from April this year.

Families

Child Benefit was another major debating point in the run-up to the Budget. The threshold for withdrawal has now been raised to an income of £50,000 and it will be reduced gradually. Households where one person earns over £60,000 a year will have their Child Benefit withdrawn.

Pensioners

There will be a single-tier State Pension, based on contributions, likely to be £140 a week but not until 2015 at the earliest. The Second State Pension will be abolished.

Existing age-related income tax allowances will be frozen from April 2013 at their 2012-13 levels for people born after 6th April 1938 until they align with the new income tax personal allowance thresholds for working taxpayers.

There will be an automatic review of the State Pension age published this summer.

Public sector workers

Independent pay review bodies have examined the case for local pay for civil servants and some local authorities will have the option of switching to it.

Additional (50%) rate taxpayers

It was trailed everywhere that George Osborne won the political battle to abolish the 50p top rate of tax. The Chancellor trumpeted the fact that this tax rate is higher than many of our competitor countries and how much income was shifted into previous tax years to avoid it. The only thing that wasn’t clear was the timetable for when this would come into effect.

We now know that it will be 45p from April next year. The Chancellor says the other taxes he has introduced on rich people will raise five times the amount of revenue the 50p rate does.

Members of the armed forces

There will be a £100 million fund for improving the accommodation for the armed forces. The rate of council tax relief will be doubled for the families of armed forces members.

Millionaires

Cracking down on tax avoidance was a big theme of Budget 2012 and an additional Stamp Duty threshold of 7% was announced on properties bought for more than £2 million from midnight tonight. There will be also a threshold of 15% on of properties worth more than £2 million bought via companies.

Unemployed people

Beyond a pledge to introduce loans to help young people start their own businesses, there were no new measures announced to tackle unemployment. The Budget Book does confirm the Government has adopted the Low Pay Commission’s recommendation for a below-inflation increase in the minimum wage to £6.19 an hour for those aged 21 and over in a bid to boost recruitment.

Savers

There will be a cap on income tax reliefs of 25% of a person’s income or £50,000, whichever is greater, for anyone trying to claim more than £50,000 of reliefs. There are no changes to ISA savings limits, which will continue to rise in line with inflation.

Small business owners

Corporation tax will be cut by a further 1% to 24% from next month. The two further 1% cuts planned for the next two tax years will still go ahead. That will leave us with a rate of 22%, while the Chancellor made clear his aspiration to cut corporation tax down to 20%.

There will be new Enterprise Zones in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Video games, animation and TV production companies will get further corporation tax breaks. But VAT will be extended to the rental of hairdressers’ chairs, sports drinks, static holiday caravans, cold food “consumed on a supplier’s premises” and certain hot food not already covered by VAT.

First-time buyers

The Stamp Duty exemption for first-time buyers buying properties up to £250,000 in value was due to end on 24th March and it has not been extended. There was nothing else, apart from a reference to the recent launch of the NewBuy scheme.

Shoppers

The Sunday trading law will be relaxed for eight weeks from 22nd July to coincide with the Olympics and Paralympics.

Drinkers

The Chancellor didn’t announce any new measures, but duty will increase by 2% above the Retail Prices Index of inflation from 26th March

Smokers

A pack of 20 cigarettes will cost 37p more from 6pm tonight.

Commuters

There will be improvements on the rail network in the north of England.

The Government will continue to work with the Mayor of London to look at longer commuter trains, extending the Underground and expanding river routes.

As ever with Budgets, the devil is in the detail and there will doubtless be more measures that were not announced in George Osborne’s speech but feature in the Budget book itself.

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