Autumn Statement – 17 November 2022 HIGHLIGHTS

The Chancellor, Jeremy Hunt says the government will deliver a plan to tackle the cost of living crisis and rebuild the UK economy. He added his priorities are stability, growth, and public services, and is providing “fair solutions” despite taking “difficult decisions”. However, the majority of the attention is centered on creating a balance between tax increases and spending cuts to fill the £50 billion hole he has inherited. The key highlights of this autumn highlights are as follows:

• The main income tax allowances and thresholds, the main national insurance thresholds
plus the inheritance tax nil rate bands will stay at their current levels for an extra two years
to April 2028.

• The threshold for the 45% additional rate of income tax will reduce from £150,000 to
£125,140 from April 2023.

• The dividend allowance will reduce from £2,000 to £1,000 from April 2023 and be halved
again to £500 from April 2024.

• The capital gains tax annual exempt amount will be cut from
£12,300 to £6,000 for 2023/24 and halved to £3,000 from April 2024.

• The government’s energy price guarantee will be adjusted from April 2023 so that the
typical household will pay £3,000 a year.

• The state pension, pension credit, universal credit (UC), the benefit cap and certain other
benefits will increase by 10.1% in line with CPI inflation to September 2022.

• Business rates bills in England will be updated from April 2023 to reflect April 2021 property
values and there will be a £13.6 billion package of targeted support for businesses over the
next five years.

• Research and development tax reliefs will be reformed with respect to expenditure incurred
from 1 April 2023.

• The windfall profits of oil and gas companies will be subject to further tax increases and a
new levy will apply to the ‘extraordinary returns’ of low-carbon electricity generators.