Autumn Budget 2024: Key Points

On 30th October 2024 the Chancellor, Rachel Reeves delivered Labour’s first Budget in 14 years. The key announcements, and how they affect you, are summarised below.

INDIVIDUALS

  • Rates of income tax and National Insurance (NI) paid by employees, and of VAT, to remain unchanged

  • Income tax band thresholds to rise in line with inflation after 2028

  • Basic rate capital gains tax on profits from selling shares to increase from from 10% to 18%, with the higher rate rising from 20% to 24%

  • Capital Gains Tax rates on carried interest will be increased from 28% to 32% from April 2025 with further reforms the following year

  • 24% CGT rate on profits from selling additional property unchanged

  • VAT on private school fees will be introduced from January 2025, with legislation soon to remove their business rates relief from April 2025

  • The non-dom tax regime will be abolished

  • Inheritance tax threshold freeze extended by further two years to 2030, with unspent pension pots also subject to the tax from 2027

  • Minimum wage for over-21s to rise from £11.44 to £12.21 per hour from April

  • Minimum wage rate for 18 to 20-year-olds to rise from £8.60 to £10.00 per hour from April

  • Minimum wage for under 18 and apprentice to rise from £6.40 to £7.55 an hour from April

  • Basic and new state pension payments to go up by 4.1% next year due to the “triple lock”

  • Eligibility widened for the allowance paid to full-time carers, by increasing the maximum earnings threshold from £151 to £195 a week

HOUSING

  • Stamp duty surcharge, paid on second home purchases in England and Northern Ireland, to go up from 3% to 5%

  • Point at which house buyers start paying stamp duty on a main home to drop from £250,000 to £125,000 in April, reversing a previous tax cut

  • Threshold at which first-time buyers pay the tax will drop back, from £425,000 to £300,000

FUEL

  • 5p cut in fuel duty on petrol and diesel brought extended for 1 year

  • £2 cap on single bus fares in England to rise to £3 from January, outside London and Greater Manchester

  • Air Passenger Duty to go up in 2026, by £2 for short-haul economy flights and £12 for long-haul ones, with rates for private jets to go up by 50%

  • Vehicle Excise Duty paid by owners of all but the most efficient new petrol cars to double in their first year, to encourage shift to electric vehicles

BUSINESS & ECONOMY

  • National Insurance on employers will rise by 1.2% to 15% on salaries above £5,000 from April 2025

  • The Secondary Threshold, the level at which employers start paying national insurance on each employee’s salary, will be reduced from £9,100 per year to £5,000

  • Employment Allowance will rise from £5,000 to £10,500

  • Main rate of corporation tax, paid by businesses on taxable profits over £250,000, to stay at 25% until next election

  • The government will introduce permanently lower business rates for retail, hospitality and leisure businesses from 2026-27. Until then they will receive 40% relief on business rates up to a cap of £110,000

SMOKING & DRINKING

  • New flat-rate tax of £2.20 per 10ml of vaping liquid introduced from October 2026

  • Tax on tobacco to increase by 2% above inflation, and 10% above inflation for hand-rolling tobacco

  • Tax on non-draught alcoholic drinks to increase by the higher RPI measure of inflation

  • Draught duty will be reduced by 1.7% to cut a penny off a pint in the pub. Alcohol duty rates on non-draught products will increase in line with RPI from February next year

Mascolo & Styles