About a month ago I was talking about the bumper 762 page Finance Bill and speculating about the size of the resulting Finance Act. I have now ditched my crystal ball because, as I mentioned last week, as a result of the pre-dissolution “wash up” process, about 80% of the content of the Bill was taken out.

Apart from the Soft drinks industry levy most of the new legislation in the original Bill has been lost.

Will the legislation be reintroduced? I won’t speculate (I’ve learned my lesson!) but we are due to get another Budget this autumn and there is nothing to stop the government introducing another Finance Bill after the General Election.

Some of the key “casualties” are:

Dividend nil rate
The dividend nil rate band was due to go down from the current £5k to £2k from 2018-2019, it will not do so unless it appears in a later Finance Bill.

Money purchase annual allowance
The maximum tax advantaged pension premiums payable by someone who has started pension drawdown was set to go down from £10k to £4k this year. The relevant clause has gone.

Trading and property allowances
The £1,000 allowances for trading and property income due to come in this year will not happen unless they are reintroduced.

Making Tax Digital
The legislation initiating MTD has been withdrawn. This does not mean that MTD has been abandoned! At best it means that its introduction will be delayed; at worst it means that there will be less time between knowing what the detailed rules are and having to implement them.

But they may be back! Fed up with trying to keep on top of these things? Let us help you, contact your local AIMS Accountant today.

AIMS Accountants for Business – if you like the way we think you’ll like the way we work.