A potential emergency Budget in preparation for no-deal Brexit and its impact on SMEs

With a no-deal Brexit looming large, the UK’s Federation of Small Businesses has called for an emergency Budget to help businesses prepare to deal with the uncertainty lying ahead.

An emergency Budget does seem to be in the government’s agenda. However, although Boris Johnson spoke of announcing it as early as September, the earliest realistic date it could happen is possibly 9 October considering the working calendar of the Parliament and other preparations for a Budget announcement that concerns the Office of Budget Responsibility.

Some potential items that might be on the agenda include:

• Increasing the higher rate tax threshold from £50,000 to £80,000
• Raising the NICs threshold from £8,632 to £12,500, estimated to cost £11 billion a year
• Reducing VAT, possibly temporarily
• Cutting stamp duty to eliminate duty on homes valued at under £500,000, reversing the stamp duty increases on more expensive homes
• Raising the annual investment allowance significantly above the current £1 million level to help boost business investment
• Creating a £100 billion infrastructure fund over five years

To read the full article including impacts of the above on SMEs, you can view our original blog post at DTE.