This was comfortably the most anticipated Budget in 392 days.
Yes – ha ha – you see what we did there?
Each year the Government’s update on spending and taxation seems to loom a little larger in the public mind, and this Autumn’s announcement was no different. As always, our focus is on the changes that may impact or shape your financial planning. Below, we’ve highlighted the updates that we think matter the most, along with a downloadable guide for a more detailed look.
Income Tax:
- The personal allowance, basic-rate, higher-rate and additional-rate thresholds have been further frozen until 2030-31. This is dangerous ground for the Chancellor, as only last year she said that freezing thresholds was unfair and she committed to not make further extensions. 293 days later this has seen a u-turn. Commentators and the media often call this phenomena ‘Fiscal Drag’. By freezing tax allowances, taxpayers do not notice an immediate tax liability, but the compound impact of those freezes make an enormous impact over time. It means that more taxpayers succumb to higher-rate tax, revenues to HMRC increase substantially over time and real income is stealthily reduced as the years roll by.
- National Insurance contributions limits are being played with around the edges – they will be re-rated by 3.8% from April 2026, which is a small tax cut. However, the rate of Class 2 and Class 3 National Insurance contributions will also increase by 3.8% from April 2026, offsetting this tax cut.
Savings Income, Dividend Income & Property Income Tax:
- Tax rates on dividends, savings income and property income will rise by 2%. The change applies to dividend income first (from April 2026), and to savings and property income slightly later (from April 2027).
- This is perhaps the most surprising tax increase in the Budget. It is the Government clearly trying to close the tax gap between ‘earned income’ and ‘unearned income’ – although it seems particularly harsh on entrepreneurs who have a low salary and their pay arrives in the form of dividends if/when the company is profitable after all other salaries have been paid.
- If we consider the knock-on impact to the net return of an investment portfolio:
- These changes mean that a higher-rate taxpayer who achieves an example return of 5% per annum, of which 3% is assumed to be ‘capital growth’ and 2% is ‘interest and dividends’, they would see a reduction in their net investment return of 0.04% per annum. That’s the 2% tax increase multiplied by the 2% of the return it applies to.
- Although this is frustrating, it will only have a relatively small impact on investor returns.
- Positively, the tax rate on capital gains (the majority of the growth in this typical example) has not increased and these Income Tax rises do not affect portfolios within an ISA, Pension or Investment Bond.
- For landlords, the introduction of a Property Tax Rate (22% basic threshold, 42% higher rate threshold) only further reduces the net rental yield – a trend which has continued over the past decade for a long list of reasons. Successive Chancellors have made it less and less attractive to be a landlord, in an effort to release housing stock for ownership.
Pension Salary-Sacrifice ‘Limit’:
- As rumoured, from April 2029, pension contributions made through salary sacrifice (also called salary exchange) will only receive National Insurance tax relief on the first £2,000 a year. Above this, salary-sacrifice pension contributions are still allowable but will lose their National Insurance tax benefit, both for the employee and employer – who often rebate part of, or all of their savings into their employee’s pension.
- Importantly, this is not being enforced with a limit on employer pension contributions, which would have had other unintended consequences.
- This change reduces the attractiveness of a long-established tax-efficient planning route. While we believe it to be short-sighted, it has now finally been introduced after being a threat on Budget Day for over a decade.
- For our Enterprise Members, who work at companies that enlist our support running their workplace benefits and meeting with their team on a 1-1 basis each year, this is something Keith has been actively warning would come one day. We now know that day to be 6th April 2029. This gives us a window of opportunity to make one last go at this super-efficient savings mechanism.
- For our Enterprise Members, we will be explaining how this change impacts you at our next presentation day.
- For our Individual clients, for those who are contributing to pensions and taking advantage of this mechanism through your employer, we will be helping you navigate this change and find the next most optimal route forward. We already have some ideas…
The long rumoured Mansion Tax, now announced as the ‘High-Value Property Surcharge’
- A new annual council tax surcharge will apply to homes valued at £2 million or more, starting April 2028.
- It works out as:
- Property worth £2,000,000 to £2,500,000 = surcharge of £2,500pa
- Property worth £2,500,000 to £3,500,000 = surcharge of £3,500pa
- Property worth £3,000,000 to £5,000,000 = surcharge of £5,000pa
- Property worth £5,000,000 or more = surcharge of £7,500pa
- The government will consult on the implementation of this tax charge in the new year.
- Unlike the things which help taxpayers, like the income tax thresholds explained above, these house value bandings will not be static and are set to increase by CPI.
- It is fair to assume that an annual property tax is ‘capitalised’ into the price a buyer is willing to pay for a house, knowing they must make those future additional payments. On that basis, a £7,500 annual charge cuts the value of a £5m property by perhaps £200k to £300k, i.e. 4-6%. So probably ‘neutral’ news if you plan to buy a home worth more than £2,000,000 but bad news if you enjoy living in one, or intend to sell!
Usage Tax on Electric Vehicles
- Are we incentivising them? Are we not? Who knows frankly!
- Electric Vehicle Excise Duty (eVED) is a new mileage charge for electric and plug-in hybrid cars, which will come into effect from April 2028. This is to recover lost tax as less people now pay fuel duty, a natural outcome of encouraging the transition to electrification.
- This is expected to be 3p per mile for fully electric vehicles and 1.5p for plug-in hybrids.
- This rate will increase with inflation annually.
- No detail has yet been provided on how this tax will be implemented or how your mileage will be tracked/recorded. This could easily be reversed by a Chancellor with a different outlook before it comes in to force.
- Alongside this change, Fuel Duty on petrol and diesel will increase from April 2027 in line with inflation, it’s first increase for 16 years.
Pensions:
- As suggested in our recent blog (LINK), there was no change to the pension tax-free-cash entitlement.
- This remains a protected element of pension planning despite speculation prior to the Budget (and numerous Budgets before this one!).
- This is a tempting rumour for the media to spread but it is unlikely to happen in our view. We feel aggrieved that the Treasury allowed this rumour to circulate for so long, as it certainly triggered concern for many and has harmed consumers who took unnecessary evasive action.
Tax efficient investing with ISAs:
- ISAs:
- The allowable proportion of cash permitted within ISAs is being reduced to £12,000 per tax year (from April 2027).
- This will not apply to people age 65+ who will retain the £20,000 per tax year cash ISA limit. No doubt this will prove fun for banks to implement!
- The overall ISA allowance will remain at £20,000, with the extra £8,000 allowance only being available for stocks and shares ISAs.
- The overall ISA, Junior ISA, Lifetime ISA, and Child Trust Fund allowances will remain unchanged until April 2031.
- Lifetime ISA reform
- A consultation will be published in early 2026 which will outline a new “simpler” product offered to support first-time buyers. This will be offered in place of the Lifetime ISA, although it seems at this stage that existing Lifetime ISA account holders will be able to continue their existing product.
Cuts to Tax Advantaged investing via VCTs
- VCT upfront income tax relief is reducing from 30% to 20% from April 2026.
- Currently, an investor who commits £10,000 to a higher-risk low liquidity investment that qualifies as a VCT gains a £3,000 credit against their tax liability in the tax year. This will reduce to £2,000.
- The stated intention for this is to divert investor appetite from established VCTs to supporting “high-growth” companies via Enterprise Investment Schemes (EIS) and Seed Enterprise Investment Schemes (SEIS) investments.
- Having said that, in a slight contradiction, the Government is also increasing the company investment limits for both VCTs and EISs to expand access for small businesses.
Reduced Relief for founders transitioning to Employee Ownership:
- The 100% relief for Capital Gains Tax for share sales to an EOT has been halved, to a 50% relief.
- This was originally introduced to incentivise companies to move to an ownership model where all employees can participate in the ownership of the company, bringing employees additional financial reward for their efforts and contribution. A reduction to relief comes as a surprise, especially at a time when there are efforts to resolve wealth inequality, which employee ownership in its purest sense helps to directly counteract.
- In the 2024 Labour manifesto, they stated: “We will support diverse business models… this includes the co-operative sector, and we will aim to double the size of the UK’s co-operative and mutuals sector. We will work with the sector to address the barriers they face, such as accessing finance.” With that statement committed to in the manifesto, the employee ownership sector has been hoping for pro-active support from Government, with a specific hope that the British Business Bank may offer businesses hoping to transition to mutual ownership favourable finance terms to achieve that change.
- Research has shown that employee owned firms offer better jobs, are more productive and more innovative.
- After our own transition to an EOT in 2024, this is a model which we firmly believe in. It’s an outstanding route for company owners who want to guarantee the continuity of their core values, mission and culture – so with that in mind, we see this announcement as a backward step which will certainly not help the EO community to grow at the same pace it has been in recent years.
Inheritance Tax Thresholds:
- The thresholds at which no tax is paid will now be frozen for a further 1 year, until April 2031. Much like the aforementioned fiscal drag on Income Tax thresholds, this has a similarly damaging and compounding impact over time, despite not actually feeling that bad when you read it.
Student Loan – frozen payment thresholds from 2027 to 2030 for ‘Plan 2’ repayments
- This is an under-the-radar stealth tax on undergraduate students who started courses between 1 September 2012 and 31 July 2023.
- Although this sounds minor, it is projected to provide a one-off saving of £5.6bn for the Treasury plus £400m per tax year thereafter.
Now for a flourish… some good news:
Inheritance Tax – an improvement to the £1,000,000 relief for agricultural and business property introduced last year
- The ‘new rules’ for IHT on Agricultural and Business assets come in to force from April 2026. All individuals are to be given a £1,000,000 relief against their Agricultural and Business assets before any excess is subject to 20% tax.
- The originally announced iteration of this relief was convoluted and created lots of unintended consequences. Many couple would never get both £1,000,000 allowances.
- Today’s change will mean that any unused relief will be transferable between spouses and civil partners, including if the first death was before 6 April 2026.
- While not 100% clear at this stage, this also suggests that widows will now have the full £2,000,000 relief, whereas they previously would only have their own £1,000,000 relief. A welcome change indeed.
State Pensions are to increase by 4.8%pa from April 2026
- We are calling this ‘good news’ on behalf of all clients who are recipients – however we remain concerned about the longevity of the current ‘triple lock’ approach and the growing pressure it puts on national spending.
Defined Benefit pensions gain the ability to return scheme surpluses
- The government will enable well-funded Defined Benefit pension schemes to pay surplus funds directly to scheme members who are over the normal minimum pension age
- This will only apply where scheme rules and trustees permit it, after April 2027.
- In reality, instances of this are likely to be few and far between, but there will be beneficiaries of this.
Cost of Living, Welfare & Social-Support Measures:
- Living Wage:
- From April 2026, the National Living Wage will increase by 4.1% to £12.71 per hour for eligible workers aged 21 and over.
- The National Minimum Wage for 18-20 year olds
- This will also increase by 8.5% to £10.85 per hour and for 16-17 year olds and apprentices by 6.0% to £8.00 per hour.
- The two-child benefit cap is being scrapped from April 2026
- Rail fare and NHS prescription charge increases will be frozen for one year.
Our full guide to the Autumn Budget offers an even more detailed breakdown…
Click the image below to open the full guide:
