Little to say

KEY POINTS

• Inheritance tax threshold to remain at £325 000.
• Staff canteen exemption to be restricted.
• Electric car boost.
• HMRC have no plans to regulate tax advisers.

The Chancellor’s speech may have lasted only 45 minutes or so but it spawned several reams of paper. Apart from the well-leaked tax on bankers’ bonuses the pre-Budget report was perhaps surprisingly light on tax increases and cuts in spending.

Personal allowances have been frozen for 2010/11 and an additional 0.5% increase to National Insurance rates will apply from 2011/12 (on top of the 0.5% already proposed).

There was good news for small companies with the Chancellor retaining the small companies’ rate at 21% for 2009/10 rather than increasing it to 22% as originally planned.

It is also worth mentioning that HMRC formally announced that it would...