We have collated some useful information for the new tax year in this handy post. If you need to discuss any of them in more detail, simply let us know.

Personal Allowance Increase

The personal Allowance rises to £12,500. An Increase of £650 from the £11,850 allowance in 2018/19.

The income limit for Personal Allowance is £100,000. For every £2 in earnings above £100,000, you lose £1 of Personal Allowance.

Auto Enrolment Contributions

The total minimum contribution increases from 5% to 8% of qualifying earnings on 6 April 2019.

Corporation Tax Reduction

At Summer Budget 2015, the government announced a reduction in the CT rate from 20% to 19% for the Financial Years beginning 1 April 2017, 1 April 2018 and 1 April 2019, with a further reduction from 19% to 18% for the Financial Year beginning 1 April 2020.

An additional 1% cut on top of the previously announced rate now cuts the main rate to 17% from 1 April 2020.

Annual Investment Allowance Increase

The Annual Investment Allowance (AIA) provides businesses with 100% tax relief, in the year of purchase, for many business assets. Qualifying assets include plant and equipment, machines and tools, vans, lorries and diggers (although it does not apply to cars).

The AIA was previously £200,000, but will be increased significantly to £1,000,000 from 1st January 2019 for a 2 year period, giving businesses an attractive tax incentive to accelerate their capital investment decisions.

Structures & Buildings Allowance

A new capital allowance has been introduced, Structures and Buildings Allowance. This gives relief for expenditure on certain structures and buildings.

The allowance is available for new structures and a building intended for commercial use. It also includes the cost of converting or renovating existing premises to qualifying use. The allowance means companies can make a 2% deduction on all qualifying assets each year, whereas previously there were no allowances and the cost could only be relieved once the premises had been disposed of.

Marriage Tax Allowance

The marriage tax allowance is a way for couples to transfer a proportion of their personal allowance (the amount you can earn tax-free each tax year) between them.

The marriage tax allowance will go up from £1,190 for 2018/19 to £1,250 for 2019/20. This means the tax saving will go up from £238 to £250.

Tax Free Savings Allowance

If you are looking to save or invest money, unfortunately there are no changes to savings allowances in 2019/20.

The rules remain the same (Since April 2016), your savings interest is paid to you tax-free, and the personal savings allowance (PSA) means every basic-rate taxpayer can earn £1,000 interest a year without paying tax on it. Higher-rate payers get a £500 allowance, and additional-raters don’t get an allowance.

Entrepreneurs’ Relief

From 2019, entrepreneurs must own a business for two years before selling in order to qualify for the relief, up from one year currently.

The rules also tighten governing the share rights an individual must benefit from before they qualify, requiring the claimant to have a five percent interest in both the distributable profits and the net assets of the company.

Pensions Allowances

The annual allowance is a limit on the total amount that can be paid into your pension scheme(s) each year and still receive tax relief.

The annual allowance is currently capped at £40,000 and this remains unchanged.

Company Vehicles

Every car has a Benefit In Kind(BIK) percentage band. This is based on CO2 emissions, and a P11D value, which is the list price, including extras and VAT, but without the first-year registration fee and vehicle tax.

Most scale percentage charges are rising by 3%. The maximum BiK rate for company cars is 37% of the vehicle’s P11D value. By 2019/20 this rate is reached at just 165g/km for petrol cars and 145g/km for diesels.