Autumn budget 2024: key points

UK Chancellor Rachel Reeves has announced £40bn of tax rises in Labour’s first budget in 14 years.

The Chancellor vowed to stick to Labour’s manifesto pledge and not raise taxes on “working people”, defined loosely by Sir Keir Starmer as those with only “a small amount of savings”.

The key points of the budget are: 

• No increases to Income tax, employees’ National Insurance Contributions or VAT. The current freeze in earnings threshold for income tax and national insurance will end in 2028
• Employer taxes are increasing: 1.2p increase in employer national insurance contributions to 15p from April. As well as a reduction in the earnings threshold that companies start to pay NI on an employee’s salary from £9,100 per year to £5000
• Capital Gains Tax: the lower rate of tax has increased from 10% to 18%, while the higher rate has increased from 20% to 24%. Property rates will remain the same at 18% and 24%
• Inheritance Tax: the freeze on inheritance tax thresholds will be extended by 2 years, remaining frozen until 2030. However, inherited pensions will be brought into inheritance tax from April 2027
• Business and Agricultural Relief: the first £1m of combined business and agricultural assets will be free of IHT. After this, IHT is payable but at a reduced rate of 20%
• Stamp Duty Land Tax surcharge on second homes is set to rise from 3% to 5% from this Thursday 31st October 2024. 

Labour is about to embark on 12 weeks’ worth of consultations to work out the logistics of how these changes will work, we will release more information in due course.

Although every effort has been made to ensure that the information provided in this article is accurate and correct, the information provided does not constitute any form of financial advice. We recommend that you take financial advice before making any financial decisions.