Autumn Statement 2023

23 November 2023
by
Zubaria Zafar

Autumn Statement 2023

23 November 2023
by
Zubaria Zafar

Autumn Statement 2023

The Chancellor of the Exchequer has delivered his Autumn Statement 2023 to Parliament.

The Treasury news story ‘Chancellor backs business and rewards workers to get Britain growing’ provides a summary of the key points arising in the Autumn Statement, which includes the following measures affecting tax:

  • from 1 April 2024, the national living wage will increase by 9.8% to £11.44 an hour, with the age threshold lowered from 23 to 21 years old;
  • from 1 April 2024, the national minimum wage will be increased to £8.60 an hour for 16–17 year olds and to £6.40 an hour for apprentices;
  • employee National Insurance contributions (NICs) will be cut from 12% to 10% from 6 January 2024;
  • Class 4 NICs will be cut by 1p, from 9% to 8% from 6 April 2024;
  • Class 2 NICs will be abolished, with no one required to pay from 6 April 2024;
  • state pension is set to increase by 8.5% in April 2024;
  • full expensing of capital expenditure will be made permanent so companies can claim 100% capital allowances on qualifying main rate plant and machinery investments;
  • a business rates support package worth £4.3 billion will be introduced over the next 5 years, including a rollover of 75% retail, hospitality and leisure relief and a freeze to the small business multiplier;
  • the existing R&D expenditure credit and small and medium enterprise (SME) scheme will be merged from 1 April 2024;
  • the rate at which loss-making companies are taxed within the merged R&D scheme will be reduced from 25% to 19%, and the threshold for additional support for R&D intensive loss-making SMEs will be lowered from 40% to 30%;
  • the climate change agreement scheme providing for reduced rates of climate change levy will be extended, giving energy intensive businesses around £300 million of tax relief every year until 2033;
  • the investment zones programme and freeport tax reliefs will be extended from 5 years to 10 years;
  • three advanced manufacturing investment zones will be established in Greater Manchester, East Midlands, and West Midlands;
  • duty on all tobacco to increase by RPI plus 2%, with the rate on hand-rolling tobacco to increase by RPI plus 12%, from 22 November 2023; and
  • alcohol duty will be frozen until 1August 2024.

HMRC’s Autumn Statement 2023: Overview of tax legislation and rates (OOTLAR) provides a list of all announced policy measures.

View the Chancellor’s speech in full: Autumn Statement 2023 speech.

See also HMRC’s Autumn Statement 2023 tax related documents, which includes Tax Information and Impact Notes (TIINS), covering the following:

• Abolition of the Lifetime Allowance from 6 April 2024;

• Amendments to the Real Estate Investment Trust regime;

• Calculation of PAYE liability in cases of non-compliance with off-payroll working;

• Change to data HMRC collects from customers;

• Changes to Air Passenger Duty rates from 1 April 2024;

• Changes to Plastic Packaging Tax rates from 1 April 2024;

• Changes to the Aggregates Levy rate from 1 April 2024;

• Changes to tobacco duty rates from 22 November 2023;

• Clarifications of the rules for cultural tax reliefs;

• Construction Industry Scheme reform from 6 April 2024;

• Creative industry tax reliefs: administrative changes;

• Dealing with promoters of tax avoidance;

• Enterprise management incentives: extension of the time limit to submit a notification of a grant of options;

• Exemption for Vehicle Excise Duty for Ukrainian vehicles;

• Expanding the Income Tax cash basis for self-employed individuals and partnerships;

• Extension of the Enterprise Investment Scheme and Venture Capital Trust Scheme;

• Fuel Duty for heavy oil and bioblends used for heating;

• Growth market exemption for Stamp Duty and Stamp Duty Reserve Tax;

• Increasing the capital allowance limits for leasing into tonnage tax;

• Increasing the maximum prison term for tax fraud;

• Interpretation of VAT and excise legislation;

• Landfill Tax rates for 2024 to 2025;

• Multinational top-up tax and domestic top-up tax amendments;

• Penalty Reform for Making Tax Digital for Income Tax Self Assessment volunteers;

• Capital allowances – permanent full expensing;

• Pensions tax relief – amendments to the relief at source legislation;

• Reform of film, TV and video games tax reliefs to expenditure credits;

• Research & Development (R&D) tax relief reforms;

• Tax exemption for corporate recipients of compensation payments made under the Post Office compensation schemes: Group Litigation Order, Horizon Shortfall Scheme, Suspension Remuneration Review or Post Office Process Review Scheme;

• Taxation of Members of Parliament, Members of the Senedd and Members of the Legislative Assembly of Northern Ireland pension reform remedies;

• Tonnage tax elections to include third party ship managers; and

• Vehicle Excise Duty rates for cars, vans and motorcycles from 1 April 2024.

HMRC and HM Treasury have also published a number of other Statement related documents, including:

Consultation outcomes:

• Construction Industry Scheme reform;

• Energy Profits Levy and the Energy Security Investment Mechanism: discussion note;

• Expanding the cash basis; and

• Off-payroll working: calculation of PAYE liability in cases of non-compliance.

Other Treasury publications:

• Autumn Statement 2023: National Insurance Factsheet;

• Autumn Statement 2023 Research and Development Tax Reliefs Reform;

• Full expensing;

• Autumn Statement Pensions Reform 2023; and

• Technical note: Electricity Generator Levy – new investment exemption.

Other HMRC publications:

• Technical note: Energy Profits Levy Energy Security Investment Mechanism; and

• Outcome of the Making Tax Digital Small Business Review.

Book Discovery Call