The Chancellor delivered her Autumn Budget 2025 on 26TH November. Summaries of the most relevant points for Business, Employers and Individuals are provided below from KPMG, with a link to a more detailed assessment on the link below.
Business
Tax increases were widely expected in the Budget, and for business these have mainly come in the form of a reduction in the writing down allowances available for (mainly historical) capital expenditure and amendments to the VAT rules applicable to private hire vehicle operators.
Tax giveaways are unsurprisingly more limited, with the most significant proposal being planned business rate changes – primarily benefitting small businesses and those operating in the retail, hospitality and leisure sectors, in part funded by increases on high value properties.
For businesses generally, however, the Budget contained little by way of sweeping changes, preferring smaller targeted measures. These include changes intended to support investment (for example, increasing access to Enterprise Investment Scheme/Venture Capital Trust funding and providing a temporary exemption from Stamp Duty Reserve Tax for businesses listing in the UK), provide greater certainty (for example, advance clearances for research and development tax reliefs and major investments), and address stakeholder concerns.
Employers
The main measures affecting employers were the widely trailed cap on NIC free pension contributions under salary sacrifice, which will take effect from April 2029, and the pre-Budget announcement of a 4.1 percent increase in the National Living Wage.
Other announcements for employers include easements to certain benefit-in-kind rules, increased limits for tax advantaged Enterprise Management Incentives share options, and further information on the mandatory payrolling of benefits-in-kind from April 2027.
Individuals
It was widely anticipated that there would be a smorgasbord of measures affecting individuals in the Autumn Budget and that did turn out to be the case.
Whilst lots of these were tax increases, or effective increases in the form of frozen allowances, there were also announcements that will be more welcome for some, including some scaling back of last year’s so called ‘non-dom’ changes.
The headlines, trailed as possibilities over recent weeks, are perhaps the new high-value property tax on residential property worth £2 million or more and the cap on pension contributions made under salary sacrifice schemes.
Other speculated changes did not come to fruition, including a possible capital gains tax ‘exit charge’ for individuals leaving the UK and restrictions on lifetime inheritance tax free gifts.
