Other measures
Making Tax Digital for Income Tax Self-Assessment (MTD)
The requirement to file tax returns using MTD is due to come into effect from 6 April 2026. Those initially affected by the rules will be those with annual income from a sole trader business or property, or both together, of £50,000. This will drop to £30,000 from 6 April 2027. The Budget includes the announcement that the government is committed to delivering MTD, and will expand the rollout to those with incomes over £20,000 by the end of the Parliament. Anyone who will be affected by these rules should make sure they are ready to comply with them in good time: understanding the requirements and making sure that it is possible to comply with them is not something that should be done at the last minute.
Compliance and debt management
The Budget includes spending on 5,000 additional HMRC compliance staff and 1,800 additional debt management staff. This is described as an ‘investment’ of £1.662 billion over the next five years that will raise £4.7 billion per year by 2029/30. The Chancellor described this in her speech as making sure that people pay the tax that they already owe.
Fuel duty
The March Budget assumed that the 5p cut in fuel duty and the three-year freeze in duty rates would end in March 2025. The Chancellor decided to maintain the freeze for another year, and to retain the 5p cut until 22 March 2026. This represents a tax cut of over £3 billion, by far the largest ‘giveaway’ in this Budget.
National Living Wage (NLW)
From 1 April 2025, the NLW will apply for those aged 21 or over will rise from £11.44 per hour to £12.21, considerably above the rate of inflation. There are also increases to the rates that apply to workers aged 18 to 20 (£10) and under 18s and apprentices (£7.55).
Interest on late paid tax
HMRC currently charge interest at 7.5% on tax that is paid late, and credit a taxpayer with 4% on repayments of tax. These rates rise and fall with the Bank of England base rate, and the ‘turn’ of 3.5% is built in to the calculation. The Budget includes an announcement that the rate on late payments will increase by 1.5 percentage points from 6 April 2025. This appears to be a straightforward increase in HMRC’s turn to 5%.