Big day: Chancellor Rachel Reeves is due to deliver her Budget
Chancellor Rachel Reeves today finally delivers her highly-anticipated tax-and-spend Autumn Budget.
She has tasked herself with closing a claimed ‘£22billion black hole’ in the UK’s public finances, fixing public services and reviving economic growth.
Labour’s first Budget in 14 years is expected to deliver the greatest volume of tax hikes in 30 years to fund extra spending on public services, and Reeves has already indicated a shake-up of the Government’s fiscal rules to allow more borrowing to pay for investment.
The existing six-year freeze on personal tax thresholds is anticipated to be extended, forcing more into a higher income tax brackets, while the Government has also trailed significant looming change to inheritance tax and capital gains tax.
Pensions could be in the firing line with a reduction to the tax-free allowance, while Reeves could opt to include pension assets as liable for IHT and force employers to start paying national insurance on pension contributions.
An ongoing row over VAT paid by private schools is set to come to a head, while the Chancellor may also pull the trigger on a private equity sector tax raid. Employers’ national insurance contributions could go up by up to £20billion.
The Budget at a glance:
Reeves opens with promises to ‘fix the foundations’ of the British economy and revitalise growth.
‘The only way to deliver growth is to invest, invest, invest – there are no shortcuts,’ she says.
- Government will implement 10 recommendations of the OBR review, coming later today
- Reeves outlines compensation package earmarked for the infected blood and Post Office scandals
