Spring Budget 2024 – How is this affecting business owners?
Chancellor Jeremy Hunt introduced the Spring Budget, dubbed “a budget for long-term growth,” on March 6th, the last budget that he will be presenting before the General Election that’s predicted to take place in Autumn. It included tax breaks and investments for small businesses in addition to reductions in personal taxes.
We’ve put together a quick little round up on some key points that may be affecting businesses in the next couple of months.
Full expensing for leased assets
In the Autumn Statment, the Government announced permanent full expensing and this has now been extended to leased assets “as soon as is affordable”.
Full expensing allows businesses to deduct the full cost of capital equipment from their profits in the year that it was purchased. This is now being extended to leased assets once the legislation is published.
Full expensing is another great benefit for businesses who are looking at Asset Finance. As well as enjoying affordable monthly payments, retaining capital and easing cashflow pressures, businesses can also claim a deduction from taxable profits.
More information on Full Expensing can be found on the Gov.UK website.
Growth Guarantee Scheme
During the Coronavirus, the Government introduced several different schemes such as the Bounce Back Loan and the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme. Whilst we were seeing the end of the pandemic, the Government introduced the Recovery Loan Scheme to support Businesses rebuild and thrive from the aftereffects of the virus.
Jeremy Hunt has pledged £200 million of funding to extend the Government’s Recovery Loan Scheme, which will be renamed to the Growth Guarantee Scheme from the 1st of July. The scheme has also been extended until March 2026. This will support 11,000 SMEs across the UK to access the finance they need.
A lot of businesses that took out a Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan (CBILS) or a Bounce Back Loan (BBL), there is an opportunity to refinance these loans. The main reason why is to reduce the interest rate payments or to move the previous Coronavirus finance support loans onto a longer term period which may also reduce the monthly repayments.
VAT Registration Threshold Increase
The VAT registration threshold will increase from £85,000 to £90,000 and will come into place from 1st April 2024.
Alcohol Duty Freeze Extended
A boost to the hospitality sector has come from the extension of the alcohol duty freeze until February 2025. In the UK, this will result in cost savings for 38,000 pubs, breweries, distilleries, bars, restaurants, and nightclubs.
National Insurance Cuts
The Chancellor went one step further by cutting National Insurance by an additional 2p after announcing a reduction in National Insurance Contributions (NICs) in his Autumn Statement.
As of April 6, 2024, the primary rate of Class 4 NICs has been reduced from 9% to 6% for self-employed individuals with profits exceeding £12,750.
This means that, on top of the removal of the Class 2 NIC requirement that was declared in the Autumn Statement of the previous year, the average self-employed individual making £28,000 would save an estimated £650 annually.
Get in touch with our team today!
If you’re looking for a Commercial Finance facility, get in touch with our team to discuss your requirements. Call us on 01270 443510 or complete our enquiry form and we’ll be in touch as soon as possible.
As a commercial finance broker, we can arrange cashflow and asset finance to property finance and a spectrum of funding to meet your franchise finance needs. Additionally, we can look into refinancing and consolidating any business debt that you may have and see if we can secure you a lower rate and/or lower your monthly repayments. Whatever your requirements may be, feel free to get in touch to discuss your plans and see if it’s something that we will be able to assist with.
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