New Business 2014 UK budget report

New Business UK budget report

The Budget round up from George Osborne's speech at 12.34pm today is as follows:

• Growth revised upward to 2.7% largest revision for thirty years, next year's growth revised to 2.3% - a budget for savers announced.
• For the first time in 35 years the UK has a higher employment rate than the USA.
• New £1 coin in circulation to replace the current coin, the same shape as the old three penny piece, in an effort to reduce the amount of counterfeit £1 coins currently in circulation.
• Tax avoidance schemes cut by half with HMRC budget increased to enable them to pursue tax collection more forcefully.
• Loophole where houses can be bought through corporate envelopes, avoiding stamp duty to be closed
• Welfare Payments to be capped at £119 billion for year 2015/16
• Libor fines to be put towards benefits for armed forces and now to assist the lifeboat services
• Exporters to be backed further with lending in this area to be doubled and interest rates to be cut on export related loans by a third.
• Increase on tax on private jet flights.
• Corporation tax to be dropped from 21% to 20% next year.
• Business rate discounts on Enterprise Zones to be extended for a further three years.
• Business Investment allowance to be extended to 2015 and doubled to £500,000.
• Promoting Energy saving for manufacturers through package of grants and investment in new sources of energy such as shale gas.
• Duty on gambling sources to be raised to 25% except for bingo duty which is cut to 10%.
• Alcohol - Beer duty to be cut by 1p a pint, Scotch whisky tax to be frozen to aid export drive.
• Income tax - Low threshold to be raised to £10,000 this year and £10,500 next.
• Tobacco tax up by inflation + 2%.
• ISA''s to be simplified allowing the merger of stocks and shares with cash in one ISA and annual limit to be raised to £15,000 from July 1^st
• Pensions. New Pensioner bond to be issued from Jan 2015 with a forecast of 2.8pct interest rate on one year and 4% for three years - max £10,000 per bond, various periods for those over 65.
• Pension rules - Pensioners can drawdown how much they want when they want and no compulsion any more to buy an annuity. Right to Advice systems to be established.

Osborne sits down at 1.29pm