Given how much of the chancellor’s Budget had already been signposted, businesses shouldn’t really have been expecting anything other than financial pain – and that is indeed what Rachel Reeves delivered.
The widely-signalled increase in employer’s National Insurance contributions, from 13.8pc to 15pc, coupled with the reduction in the threshold at which NI becomes payable from £9,100 to £5,000, means that an employer will face a hike in NI contributions for an employee on the minimum wage of around £800 a year.
That is coupled with a 6.7pc rise in the National Living Wage which takes effect in April. The slightly more than doubling of the Employment Allowance will only significantly help the very smallest employers.
These increased costs are sure to have an impact on the prices businesses charge customers, and hence on inflation.
The even greater 16.3pc increase in the National Minimum Wage rate for 18 to 20 year-olds will have a significant effect on hospitality businesses where there is a disproportionate number of employees of this age, and this will only be partly mitigated by the announcement of a partial stay of execution on the question of business rates, with a 40pc relief for hospitality, leisure and retail businesses for 2025/26.
Reforms to Business Asset Disposal Relief, and Agricultural and Business Property Reliefs, will make life more difficult for entrepreneurs and family businesses. Retiring and succession planning just became more complicated, and inevitably more expensive.
It is good to see clarity on issues such as corporation tax (which has been capped at 25pc until 2030) full expensing and the Annual Investment Allowance, which will at least allow businesses to plan with some certainty.
We don’t know the full details yet, but the decision to move inherited pensions into the scope of inheritance tax could yet be one of the most impactful measures announced yesterday. Not only will this bring many more people into inheritance tax reach, but it could fundamentally change how we plan for retirement.
Overall Rachel Reeves delivered a Budget which was tough on businesses but ultimately marked a continuation of the trend of the last few Budgets. Turning her attention from taxing profits to taxing employment may hinder growth more than expected. Only time will tell.
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