Here are some of the changes in the March 2012 Budget
Income Taxes
- Additional rate reduced to 45% from April 2013
- Personal Income Tax allowance increased to £9,205 from April 2013
- No changes to pension tax relief
- Personal tax statement to be sent to 20m tax payers from 2014
Child Benefit
- To be withdrawn from higher tax payers if someone in the house is earning more than £50,000 at the rate of 1% for every £100 earned over £50,000.
Pensions
- New single tier pension to be around £140 and based on Basic State Pension and additional state pension
- New single-tier state pension for future pensioners to be set at about £140 and based on contributions to replace Basic State Pension and additional state pension
- Basic state pension to increase by £5.30 a week to £107.40 from April 2012
Housing
- Stamp duty on residential properties over £2m that are bought via a company will increase to 15% from today.
- Stamp duty on properties worth over £2m increases to 7% from midnight tonight.
- Consultation on annual charge on residential properties worth over £2m that are already owned via a company.
- Retrospective action to be taken on any scheme that evades the above new stamp duty charges.
- Extra funding to help construction firms building new homes.
Business Taxes
- Corporation tax cut to 24% from April 2012 and reduced to 23% in 2013 and 22% in 2014.
- Simplified tax system for small firms with a turnover of up to £77,000.
- Tax credit to be introduced for video games, animation and high end TV industries
