Here is every important business announcement from the Budget 2016

What do the measures mean for business?

Describing this year’s statement to Parliament as the “Budget that backs small business”, George Osborne announced a raft of changes to tax and incentives for small and medium-sized businesses.

The chancellor began by outlining forecasts by the Office for Budget Responsibility, which had been revised down.

New #Budget GDP forecasts:
2015 2.2% (was 2.4%)
2016 2% (2.4)
2017 2.2 (2.5)
2018 2.1 (2.4)
2019 2.1 (2.3)
2020 2.1 (2.3)

— Ed Conway (@EdConwaySky) March 16, 2016

 

Then he moved on to announcing his Budget. Here is a quick roundup of the main measures, with a focus on what it all means for business:

Sugar charge: 18p per litre for lower rate. 24p per litre higher rate. Treasury says firms must market lower sugar versions & smaller sizes

— Chris Ship (@chrisshipitv) March 16, 2016

In order to “level the playing field which has been tilted against our small firms” Osborne announced:

–          The closure of loopholes which allow foreign businesses to use eBay and Amazon to sell goods they are storing in the UK, to avoid VAT and undercut British businesses

–          A tax break for 500,000 micro-entrepreneurs

–          Increasing Business Rates relief from April next year – from £6,000 to £15,000, and from £18,000 to £51,000 for the higher rate. 600,000 small businesses will pay none

–          Cut to “distorted and unproductive” corporation tax to 17% by April 2020

–          “Radically” simplify business rates and switch to CPI from RPI from 2020

–          Tax free personal allowance to rise to £11,500

–          An increase in the 40p tax threshold to £45,000 from April 2017 and £42,385 from this April

–          Increase in ISA limit to £20,000

–          New Lifetime ISA to help young people safe for home or retirement for £4,000. The government will match every £4 with £1

–          About £1bn of tax cuts to the oil and gas industry by cutting the supplementary charge on oil and gas from 20% to 10%

–          £730m for renewables backing

–          Flood defences funding increase by raising the standard rate of insurance premium tax by 0.5% – people effectively paying for their own flood defences

–         A tax on sugary drinks will raise £520m in 2018/19 then 455m in 2020/21. It will reduce because firms will change the recipe of drinks, according to Osborne. Small firms are exempt