There was little in today’s budget of interest to investors.
The main change to affect customers was the loss of a new allowance only introduced last year called the “Dividend Tax Allowance”. This was £5,000 in the current tax year and allowed long-term investors to reduce the amount of tax paid on their investments that were out-with of stocks and shares ISAs.
The allowance falls to £2,000 in the 2018/19 tax year.
The other main change was an increase in National Insurance rates for the self-employed which (according to the Chancellor) corrects a long-term imbalance between tax paid between employees and the self-employed.
Anyone running a business will be pleased in the relief introduced to business rates, but apart from this change, that was about it!
Just one point worth mentioning. Osbourne’s new Lifetime ISA starts in April. This is a tax efficient and attractive savings and investment scheme for the under-40’s, so long as the funds are used to fund a first property purchase or retirement.
