Budget at a glance: All the key points
More money for homes and the military and new taxes targeting digital giants and non-recycled plastics also among measures unveiled by the Chancellor.
An earlier than expected increase in the income tax threshold and the higher rate threshold were the highlights of the Chancellor’s Budget.
Philip Hammond said the personal allowance, the income at which workers begin to pay tax, would increase to £12,500 from April, with the amount when the top rate of income tax is applied rising to £50,000 at the same time. They had been due to come into effect in April 2020.
Here are the main points at a glance:
– Income tax personal allowance to rise to £12,500 from April 2019
– Higher rate income tax threshold to rise to £50,000 at the same time
– Both to be indexed to inflation from 2021/22
– The Private Finance Initiative (PFI) and successor PFI2 abolished for future Government projects
– Digital Services Tax to be introduced in April 2020 targeting online giants with global revenues of more than £500 million
– Counter-terrorism police to get an extra £160 million funding for 2019/20
– An extra £1 billion over five years for the Universal Credit benefit programme
– Funding for Government departments’ Brexit preparations increased from £1.5 billion to £2 billion
– New tax on the manufacture and import of plastic packaging which is less than 30% recycled
– Tobacco duty escalator to continue to rise at inflation plus 2%
– Remote Gaming Duty to increase to 21% for online gambling on “games of chance” from 2019
– An extra £1 billion for the Ministry of Defence to boost cyber and anti-submarine warfare programmes to the end of 2019
