On Wednesday 3rd March 2021, The Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rishi Sunak, presented his budget. And what a huge challenge he has on his hands. For the last 12 months, The Chancellor has had one job and one job only, navigating us through the pandemic and tackling the economic consequences with Government spending reaching an unprecedented £407 billion (yes, that’s actually £407,000,000,000).

With a carefully devised strategy, Rishi has promised to “protect jobs and livelihoods of the British people” as the country emerges from the Covid crisis. He has provided businesses with an incentive to invest and recruit, at the same time as raising money to start to cover the costs of the pandemic.

We look at the Budget in detail within our DJH Mitten Clarke Budget Report 2021, here are the key headlines:

• Furlough and Self-Employed Income Support Scheme extended to 30th September 2021;
   
• Continued business support and investment through:
  • One-off Restart Grants
  • New government-backed UK-wide Recovery Loan Scheme
  • The UK-wide Future Fund: Breakthrough scheme
     
• Business rates holiday extended until the 30th June for retail, hospitality and leisure businesses;
   
• VAT cut to 5% extended for the tourism and hospitality sector;
   
• Corporation tax paid on company profits increased from 19% to 25%, with a freeze of 19% for businesses with profits less than £50,000;
   
• 130% super-deduction for companies who invest, cutting taxes by 25p for every pound invested;
   
• Employer incentive of £3,000 for apprentices recruited between April and September 2021;
   
• Access to funded training for management and digital transformation through new Help to Grow schemes;
   
• Stamp duty holiday extended until 30th June 2021;
   
• Income tax personal allowance increased to £12,570 from April 2021;
   
• Inheritance tax threshold, pensions lifetime allowance, annual exempt allowance from capital gains tax and VAT exemption threshold to be frozen; and
   
• Fuel duty frozen.

As always, a lot was covered so our special 2021 Budget Report summary sets out the economic background, the measures introduced by the Chancellor and the early reaction to his speech.

DJH Mitten Clarke Budget Report 2021

If you have any questions or we can help by talking you through how the Budget may impact you or your business, please get in touch on 01782 279615.