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.