03 December, 2014 in Company News

Autumn Statement - 3 December 2014

Chancellor George Osbourne today delivered his 2014 Autumn Statement to the House of Commons - his final Autumn Statement before the General Election next year.

Whilst many parts of his speech bore the hallmarks of a party preparing for the polls, we at last received the news that our local politicians, along with their policy makers, could soon be setting the rates of corporation tax rates here in Northern Ireland. That has to be welcome news - although it is of course conditional on them getting their own spending into line. We live in hope.

Aside from this much anticipated announcement, the Autumn Statement appeared to bring no radical changes. Delving into the detail, there are changes which will affect business - the removal of the 10% rate of capital gains tax for individuals selling the goodwill of their business to their new company will be felt with a new rate of 18% or 28%. There is also an increase in R&D credits - now up to 230% for SMEs, a real opportunity for local business to get even more cash back by being innovative.

The Stamp Duty changes on residential properties will ease the burden there too - but it will take more than this to get the property market back to some sort of normality locally.

See the attached briefing for the key highlights of the speech.

Autumn Statement 2014.pdf

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