Cheadle Chartered Accountants

So now we’ve heard it – George Osborne’s second Budget speech. So what exactly did the Chancellor say and, more importantly, what did it actually mean?

Budget speeches tend to be fairly uninspiring affairs. However, the background documents are usually more enlightening. To save you having to trawl through hundreds of pages of government and HMRC press releases, our summary of the main changes will quickly bring you up to speed and hopefully be a lighter read. budget 2011 Newsletter

Budget announcements contain many fundamental taxation changes which will affect business and personal lives for the year to come. Written in plain English, we have broken the summary down into the main areas of taxation, including business and corporate, employment, personal and capital. We have also included comments on the more important changes, together with any planning points that may arise.

We hope the summary will provide an invaluable update for you and help you get to grips with the changes.  However, despite HMRC’s assurances that ‘tax doesn’t have to be taxing’, recent years have seen a plethora of changes to the tax system. We are here to help you navigate and plan your way through the tax maze so please do get in touch if you have any questions.

HMRC cut the rate of interest on underpaid Income tax, NIC, CGT, Stamp duty and certain other taxes from 3.5% to 2.5% as of 23 March. For underpaid corporation tax the rate was reduced from 2.5% to 2% as of 16 February and from 2% to 1.5% from 16 March

The rate of interest on overpaid Income Tax, NIC, CGT, stamp duty and certain other taxes remains unchanged at 0%. For overpaid and early paid corporation tax, the rate fell from 1.25% to 0.75% as of 16 February and from 0.75% to 0.25% as of 16 March.