Budget – beneath the surface

Key points

• It is often the documents that accompany the Budget that contain the most significant measures.
• HMRC has set out the direction for the way it envisages income tax and PAYE will be developed.
• Digital systems must be efficient if HMRC wants taxpayers to use them.
• More on the cash basis – increase the threshold or abolish it?
• Full expensing is only a temporary measure.

The timing of the Budget is not kind to Taxation’s print schedules: you would think that the chancellor would have realised that by now and changed his plans. We had already committed last week’s edition by the time that he stood up to speak. But it does give us the advantage of a bit of reflection time.

In all of the years that I have been covering them I’ve learned that while immediate reactions have their place the real implications of a...