This afternoon’s budget speech was something of a damp squib. The budget was without doubt an “election budget”. The Minister justified his limited announcements by announcing that 2014 collection budgets would in fact be met.
In addition to the points below, tax highlights include:
- Individual tax rates remain unchanged but adjustments to bands for “bracket-creep” have been made
- Company tax rate remains at 28%
- CGT inclusion % remain unchanged
- VAT unchanged at 14%
- Quite a significant increase in the tax-free portion of retirement fund payouts
- No change to donations tax or estate duty
- Fuel levy contained at inflation
Sin taxes – increase on alcohol and tobacco as expected but not excessive
In simple terms, government does not want to upset people in numbers, so we should be happy that it is business as usual …
Look out for our 2014 electronic tax guide in the next few days.