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Other measures affecting individuals (Budget 2009)

Stamp duty

The stamp duty holiday for all houses costing up to £175,000 is to be extended until 31 December 2009.

Support for savers

The government has announced that the ISA investment limit is to be increased to £10,200, of which £5,100 can be saved in cash. The new limits are to be introduced for those aged 50 or over for the tax year 2009/10 but only for deposits being available from 6 October this year. The higher ISA limits will then apply to everyone from 6 April 2010.

Offshore disclosure

The much anticipated new disclosure opportunity for those with offshore bank accounts will run until March 2010, giving owners of these accounts the opportunity to disclose relevant details to the tax authorities of their own accord in exchange for lower penalties. This is in line with the coordinated international approach being taken towards undisclosed offshore bank accounts as outlined at the G20 Summit meeting recently.

Company car tax

In recognition of the ever lowering CO2 emissions from modern cars, on which benefit in kind tax charges are calculated, the government has announced that it is again moving the goalposts on these with effect from 6 April 2011, by shifting the CO2 emissions thresholds down by 5grams per kilometre with effect from 6 April 2011.

It has also announced that the current £80,000 cap on company car list prices for the purposes of calculating company car benefit will be abolished such that the drivers of the most expensive company cars will pay a tax charge based on the full list price of the car when new.

The old discounts available for different types of vehicles will be completely abolished and replaced by a single system which simply rewards lower CO2 emissions.

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 22nd, 2009 at 6:08 pm and is filed under Budget. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

One Response to “Other measures affecting individuals (Budget 2009)”

  1. New Disclosure Opportunity Says:
    June 11th, 2009 at 1:03 pm

    Those individuals choosing to participate in the scheme will be expected to settle the tax owed, interest thereon and a reduced penalty by 31 March 2010. For these individuals there is a high chance HMRC will accept the figures and move on, so peace of mind for these individuals could be achieved by taking advantage of this opportunity. However, those individuals choosing not to avail themselves of the scheme risk detailed investigations and possible prosecution.