The November budget

The problem of having a deadline for publication is that life tends to throw up some new important information just at the wrong time. The chaos of the ‘mini-budget’ resulted in a new Prime Minister and Chancellor. The Budget on 17^th November was set to herald tax rises. So, what has been announced?

NOVEMBER – INCOME TAX

Tax thresholds have been frozen, save the additional rate of tax threshold, which now begins sooner, meaning that more people will pay 45% tax, starting at £125,140 instead of £150,000. What this means in practice for someone now brought into additional rate (earning £150,000) is that they pay 5% more income tax on their earnings above £125,140. If you earn £150,000 you would pay £1,243 more income tax as a result of this change, (£11,187 as opposed to £9,944) effectively £103.58 a month more. Whilst politicians talk of short-term pain, the projections show this measure for 5 years.

NOVEMBER – CAPITAL GAINS TAX

Capital Gains allowances have been cut substantially, reducing from £12,500 to £6,000 from April 2023 and then to £3,000 from April 2024. Trusts have a CGT allowance of half the personal allowance. So realising gains this tax year will be more effective than in future years.

As a reminder, this is the permitted gains on assets being sold with a 0% tax rate before being taxed at 10% or 20%, unless that asset is a second property in which case its 18% or 28%. So if you are a landlord, sell before April 5^th to maximise your allowances.

I had expected the rates of tax to increase in line with income taxes rather than the allowance being altered and mostly scrapped entirely. In any event, capital gains tax allowance reductions makes your annual ISA, Pension, VCT, EIS allowances all even more attractive, sheltering funds from CGT in different ways.

NOVEMBER- DIVIDENDS

The Dividend allowance has also been slashed. This will mostly impact those with a small business whereby family members or staff can have a share of profits (dividends) tax free. The first £2,000 of dividends are currently tax free, this will reduce to £1,000 from the new tax year and then £500 in the next ..

NOVEMBER – PENSIONS

It would seem that there are no changes, which is frankly a bit of a surprise. The annual allowance remains at £40,000 unless you have income over £200,000 when a reduced (tapered) allowance would apply. The Lifetime Allowance has remained in place. If you are an NHS employee, I cannot find anything in the 70 page statement to help you with your annual allowance problems and there is nothing about the tapered annual allowance. So, sadly, more senior doctors will likely reduce their NHS hours or otherwise face tax charges on income that they have not had. We can help crunch the numbers, but if anyone is in a position to ‘get it’, Mr Hunt is but seems to have chosen not to.

NOVEMBER – STATE PENSIONS

If you are receiving your State Pension, it’s going to increase by 10% in April. If you haven’t started taking yours, well you are also likely to have to wait until you are much older to get one. Everyone knows this is a political ‘hot potato’ and the younger generations are unlikely to receive a State Pension until at least 68 (and this will probably be increased in the announcement in early 2023).

NOVEMBER – FEELING FROZEN?

You are going to need to ‘let it go’ … that is – hopes of seeing the end of frozen allowances ending any time soon. The personal allowance, slice of basic rate and higher rate tax tiers were all frozen anyway, but the deep freeze has been extended by two further years. Due to inflation and rising salaries, this will in itself raise more tax. This is part of what critics call ‘stealth taxes’ – the sort you don’t really register (much like inflation eroding your cash) – you only tend to notice after a few years of going backwards.

The Energy Price Guarantee will be maintained through the Winter, limiting typical energy bills to £2,500, this will increase to £3,000 from April. It is generally expected that energy prices will remain high for the next 12 months. To be blunt, nobody knows because it all rather depends on the Russians. One point to note is that the energy savings you may be making now will likely continue as the Government intend to reduce energy consumption by 15% by the end of the decade. To put that into perspective, that’s about the same as making your use of energy in 10 months last a year.

PROPERTY

The British obsession with houses continues to be supported by Government policy. The tax when buying property (Stamp Duty Land Tax) was reduced in September doubling the first tier of SDLT with a 0% tax rate from £125,000 to £250,000. For First Time Buyers this is extended from £300,000 to £425,000. These measures will end on 31^st March 2025. If you are going to move or buy your first home and want to benefit from this fully, do so before March 2025.

You can read more articles about Pensions, Wealth Management, Retirement, Investments, Financial Planning and Estate Planning on my blog which gets updated every week. If you would like to talk to me about your personal wealth planning and how we can make you stay wealthier for longer then please get in touch by calling 08000 736 273 or email info@solomonsifa.co.uk

BACK TO ALL BLOGS

ESHER AND SURREY TOP TAX PAYERS

TODAY’S BLOG

ESHER AND SURREY TOP THE TAX PAYERS

Don’t worry, I’m not going to get into my opinions about politics and the upcoming general election. I am merely going to draw your attention to some data that makes the point that taxation probably determines your politics.

579 TOWNS RANKED IN THE UK

A new study by UHY Hacker Young Accountants found did some sums on average incomes and average amounts of income tax paid across 579 towns of the UK. I might take issue with the idea of an average income; I would much prefer “median” which is the actual mid-point of income. I’m sure you know this, but let’s just make the point.

THE THING ABOUT AVERAGES

10 people, 9 have an income of £10,000 and one has an income of £100,000. The average income is £19,000 (total income divided by 10). The median income (the mid-point in the total range is £10,000). The average is distorted by incomes at either end of the scale.

ESHER AND WALTON

Given the above, it would therefore probably not surprise you that the stockbroker belt has a much higher average income tax. The most expensive area being Esher and Walton, where the average income per person is £68,600 and the average income tax paid is £18,900. London has an average income of £46,900 with income tax of £10,400. Compare this to Nottingham North which came 579th (last) with an average income of £21,700 and tax paid of £2,080. By way of note the national average income tax paid is £4,617 with an average income of £30,780.

WHAT ABOUT HOUSE PRICES?

So just doing a quick check of house prices in Bulwell, NG6 – the average value of property is £139,792 whilst in Esher it is £1,039,615 (according to Zoopla). Again, be warned about averages! Let’s pretend that to buy a property in either you can do so with a multiple of your income. In Bulwell you would still need 6.44x the average income for the area, in Esher you would need 15.15x the average income for Esher. House prices and incomes are related. High incomes are needed to buy higher priced homes.

LIFE IN ESHER COSTS IN TRIPLICATE

The average person in Esher pays income tax of triple the national average. I regularly drive through Esher, it is a pretty little “town” with a flourishing high street, which includes a stockbroker and lots of kitchen companies. Its the home of many celebrities and football stars (its is very close to the Chelsea FC training ground). It has one of my favourite cinemas – the Everyman, (which isn’t obviously more expensive than most others). The give away is the large houses with equally large gates, in fact there are communities of them.

Despite what some might say, the higher earners have had many tax rises. The personal allowance tapered from £100,000 (abolished by £125,000). Inheritances tax nil rate band frozen at £325,000 for a decade. Yes this might be increased to possiblly £500,000 with the additional Main Residence Nil Rate Band, but in practice, if the estate is worth more than £2m, it is lost. Child benefit withdrawn for those earning £50,000. Annual pension allowance cut hugely to an annual allowance of £40,000 but probably £10,000 for anyone with income or relevant earnings of £210,000.

You can draw your own conclusions from why people with more money might vote for tax cuts and why those with less want more tax from those that seem to have more. The regional bias for work and pay does not help with solutions. There are some suggestions here from the ONS.

For the record, according to the ONS, the average pay for employees in September this year (2019) was £26,416.

Dominic Thomas
Solomons IFA

GET IN TOUCH

Solomon’s Independent Financial Advisers
The Old Bakery, 2D Edna Road, Raynes Park, London, SW20 8BT

Email – info@solomonsifa.co.uk
Call – 020 8542 8084

7 QUESTIONS, NO WAFFLE

Are we a good fit for you?

Take Survey

PRIVACY POLICY | DATA PROTECTION