Only a few hours left until George Osborne stands up in Parliament to deliver this year’s Autumn Statement…what will you be doing? In the run up to the Christmas shut down everyone is busy so we’ll do some of the work for you. Our team of tax experts will be listening, analysing and advising.
Hazlewoods will sort the reality from the rhetoric. We will give you the key insights that have practical use to you, your business and family.
What can we tell you ahead of the Chancellor’s speech?
We know that the emphasis is likely to be on fairness, everybody paying their fair share to the UK, and transparency – demonstrating why that share IS fair. If you have overseas interests this will be of particular importance to you. We will be outlining what you need to know once Mr Osborne has sat down.
Where evasion is suspected there is to be a newly funded crackdown by HMRC as announced on 3 December. Some loopholes will be closed, as ever. If he follows form, as well as an update on the state of the UK economy we will also get more news on various tax measures which have already been announced which are due to be introduced from April 2013, such as:
A statutory residency test and reform of ordinary residence
- A General Anti-Abuse Rule
- Patent box
- Above the line R&D credit for larger companies
- Corporation tax reliefs for the creative sector
- Simplification of employee share plans
- Increase the IHT-exempt amount that a UK domiciled individual can transfer to their non UK domiciled spouse or civil partner
- Cap on unlimited tax relief (excluding charitable donations)
- Extension of the Capital Gains Tax regime to gains made on disposals of UK residential property by non-UK resident companies
- A new simpler basis for calculating tax for small businesses
Ultimately however, this climate of increased transparency, data analysis and access and international cooperation in the fight against ‘unacceptable’ tax evasion is undefined. Although HM Treasury have announced they are publishing a new paper entitled “Closing in on Tax Evasion”, we look forward to understanding the impact of this stance on taxpayers on a day to day basis.
That old enemy of business, uncertainty, surrounds what this actually means in practice. We will be working to decode the impact on you after tomorrow’s speech. Everything will be posted on this website so please check it regularly to catch up with the latest position as the day unfolds.