Should small businesses be smiling after the summer budget 2015?

Well there was a lot in this summer budget and on the whole it looks like small businesses should be smiling with changes aimed at reducing the tax burden for small businesses.

It also looks like there will be a massive clampdown on tax evasion with HMRC getting a lot more money!

The key items that are of interest to small businesses are:

  • £3k off employers National Insurance, a 50% increase in the NI allowance.
  • Corporation tax to be cut to 19% in 2017 and 18% in 2020.
  • Dividend tax credit to be replaced with a new tax-free allowance of £5,000 on dividend income.
  • Inheritance tax threshold to increase to £1m, phased in from 2017.
  • Personal tax allowance to rise to £11,000 next year.
  • The 40% tax rate threshold to rise from £42,385 to £43,000 next year.
  • Annual investment allowance will be fixed permanently at £200,000 from January 2016.
  • Rent-a-room relief scheme to rise to £7,500.
  • New national living wage will be introduced for all workers aged over 25, starting at £7.20 an hour from April 2016 and set to reach £9 by 2020.
  • £7.2bn to be raised from clampdown on tax avoidance and tax evasion with HMRC budget increased by £750m.
  • Non-domiciles: abolishing permanent non-dom status for anyone resident in the UK for 15 of the last 20 years.
  • The amount people can contribute to their pension tax-free to be reduced for individuals with incomes over £150,000.
  • Mortgage interest relief for buy-to-let homebuyers to be restricted to basic rate of income tax.