The Autumn Budget 2021 was announced by Chancellor Rishi Sunak today, below are some of the key budget announcements that will have an impact on businesses.

Business Support

  • Businesses in the retail, hospitality and leisure sectors will have a new 50% business rates discount. Eligible businesses will be able to claim the discount of up to a maximum of £110,000. This tax cut will be worth almost £1.7bn
  • Those who pay business rates will benefit from more frequent re-evaluations every three years from 2023
  • New investment relief to encourage businesses to adopt greener technologies such as solar panels
  • Business rates improvement relief – from 2023 every business will be able to make property improvements and, for 12 months, pay no extra business rates.
  • The increase in the multiplier that was planned for next year has been cancelled, this will help businesses pay their tax bills, leading to a cut of £4.6bn over the next 5 years.

Fuel Duty

  • The plan to rise fuel duty has been cancelled, this means 12 consecutive years of frozen rates. The average car driver saves around £1,900.

Minimum Wage

  • The National Living Wage will increase next year by 6.6%. This is an increase from £8.91 to £9.50. For someone who works for full time, this will equate to a pay rise worth over £1,000

Tax

  • The £1m annual investment allowance that was planned to end in December will not happen. It has instead been extended to March 2023
  • Bank surcharge within corporation tax will be retained at 3% and overall corporate tax rate on banks will increase from 27% to 28% in 2023
  • Help for challenger banks – raising the annual allowance to £100m
  • Reform of tax relief for research and development investment

R&D

  • By the end of this parliament, spending on R&D will be £20bn a year
  • R&D spending will rise to 1.1 per cent of GDP
  • Cloud computing and data costs will be included in the expansion of the R&D tax credit system.