Budget Highlights 2015

18th March 2015

Budget highlights

Some of the key points of the Budget are:

A new Help to Buy ISA will be introduced with the government providing a £50 bonus for every £200 of monthly savings up to a maximum of £3,000 on £12,000 of savings. The aim is to start the scheme from autumn 2015.
In another reform to the ISA regime, investors will be able to withdraw money from their cash ISAs and replace it in the same tax year without it counting towards their annual subscription limit. The intention is that this too will be introduced this autumn.
There will be a cut in the pension lifetime allowance to £1 million from April 2016, together with another set of transitional protection rules.
The personal allowance will increase to £10,800 in 2016/17 and £11,000 in the following year.
The higher rate threshold will rise to £42,700 in 2016/17 and £43,300 in 2017/18, the first above-inflation increases in the threshold for seven years.
The government proposes to abolish self-employed Class 2 national insurance contributions some time in the next parliament.
Self-employed farmers will be able to average their profits over five years instead of just two from April 2016.
Charities will be pleased by the proposed increase in the Gift Aid Small Donation maximum amount from £5,000 to £8,000 from April 2016.

To read the full Budget highlights, please click here.