Spring Budget 2023 – What would we like to see?

The Spring Budget will take place on Wednesday 15 March. The question on everyone’s minds is whether there will be any significant announcements. The Chancellor has been encouraged to use the Spring Budget to “show there is a path” to lower taxes, but whether this will come into fruition is yet to see.

In this update, we catch up with three of our Partners to get their predictions for this year’s Budget.

Tax predictions, Colin Burns

A reduction in taxes

“A reduction in taxes, or at least a signal from the Chancellor as to when he can see the ability to reduce taxes. Currently, a lot of people and our clients are being drawn into all sorts of tax nets, whether that be inheritance tax, income tax, capital gains tax etc. – we would like to see a guidance as to when this situation might ease.”

Simplification

“We hope to see simplification brought into the system to make everything a little more understandable and to take the pressure off tax payers as well as staff at HMRC, who find themselves under resourced and under pressure.”

Encouraging over 55s back to work

“I hope to see an initiative to try and get people over the age of 55 who retired during the pandemic, back to work. Maybe offering tax or national insurance breaks for both employees and employers to encourage them back.”

VAT predictions, Richard Staunton

“I doubt we will see any major changes to any areas of VAT. As with the last few years, I expect that the various VAT thresholds such as registration and deregistration limits to remain untouched pulling more businesses into the VAT regime via fiscal drag.

With wholesale energy prices dropping I also doubt we will see the demand for the reduced rate for VAT on domestic fuel and power to be amended to the zero rate as was called for in the summer.

In the medium to long term I expect that there will be fundamental changes to the VAT regime either to generate more income for the treasury or to make business more competitive.”

International Tax predictions, Sonal Shah

Is the non-dom status here to stay?

In January, the Labour party put forward a motion calling for the analysis of the impact of abolishing the non-dom status and are continuing to push for a reform of the UK’s tax regime for non-domiciled individuals, putting pressure on the Chancellor to address the issue in the upcoming Budget.

It seems unlikely that immediate changes will be made in the Budget, but the Chancellor may feel the need to respond, and an announcement concerning a future consultation on prospective changes is not out of the question.

I also expect to see further announcements focused on tax anti-avoidance measures, perhaps enforcing penalties for entities that haven’t registered on the new Register of Overseas Entities, which had its first deadline on 31 January 2023.

To keep you up to date with the latest developments, we will be releasing our summary of the Spring budget shortly after the announcement. Keep an eye on our insights page and our social media for the full summary.