Finance Bill receives Royal Assent
The Finance (No.3) Bill 2017-19 received Royal Assent (later than originally planned) on 12 February 2019 following agreement by both Houses on the text of the Bill. The Bill is now an Act of Parliament known as Finance Act 2019. The Act contains the legislation for many of the tax measures announced by the government at Autumn Budget 2017 some of which had been the subject of further consultation. The Bill also includes other measures that were first announced in the Autumn Budget 2018.
Some of the measures included within the Bill are:
- The Income Tax rates, thresholds, and allowances for 2019-20. This includes meeting the government’s commitment to increase the basic personal allowance to £12,500 and the higher rate threshold to £50,000.
- The setting of the Corporation Tax rate for 2020-21 at 17%. The rate for 2019-20 remains at 19%.
- The temporary increase in the Annual Investment Allowance (AIA) from £200,000 to £1m for two years from 1 January 2019.
- The introduction of a new 30 day reporting and payment deadline for CGT on UK residential property gains from 6 April 2020.
- A number of changes to entrepreneurs’ relief.
- A reduction in the tax writing down allowance from 8% to 6% from April 2019.
- The current VAT registration limit (£85,000) and deregistration limit (£83,000) will continue to apply for a further two years; until 31 March 2022.
The Finance Bill 2017-18 officially known as Finance (No.2) Bill 2017-19, received Royal Assent on 15 March 2018 following agreement by both Houses. The Bill is now an Act of Parliament to be called the Finance Act 2018. The Act contains the legislation for many of the tax measures that were announced by the Government at Autumn Budget 2017.
Finance Act 2018, introduces a number of diverse measures including the introduction of a new permanent Stamp Duty Land Tax relief for first-time buyers, the freezing of the capital gains indexation allowance for companies from the end of 2017, increases in Vehicle Excise Duty and Company Car Tax rates for diesel cars, and higher limits for some Enterprise Investment Scheme and Venture Capital Trust investments.
The Finance Act also puts in place several new measures to tackle tax avoidance, evasion, and non-compliance in areas including offshore trusts, disguised remuneration and VAT evasion by online sellers.
The Finance Bill 2017 officially known as Finance (No. 2) Bill received Royal Assent on 27 April 2017 following agreement by both Houses on the text of the Bill. The Bill is now an Act of Parliament (law) known as Finance Act 2017.
The Finance Bill was one of 22 Bills fast-tracked through Parliament to receive Royal Assent before the 2016-17 Parliamentary session was brought to a close with a ‘prorogation’ announcement on Thursday 27 April 2017.
The Finance Act 2017 contains just 148 pages compared to the 762 pages when it was first published. The measures in the Act include changes to the main Income Tax rates for 2017-18, new overseas pensions and offshore transfers measures, the introduction of the soft drinks industry levy and some VAT and IPT measures.
Parliament was dissolved on Wednesday 3 May for the 2017 General Election on 8 June.
The Finance Bill 2014 was presented to Parliament on 25 March 2014. The Bill contains the legislation for many of the tax measures that have been announced by the Government.
The Finance Bill 2014 was formally known as Finance Bill 2014-15. The Bill received Royal Assent on 17 July 2014 following agreement by both Houses on the text of the Bill. The Bill is now an Act of Parliament(law) known as Finance Act 2014.
The Finance Act includes new powers that will allow HMRC to collect accelerated payments from users of tax avoidance schemes. The Finance Act will also give HMRC’s debt collection team authority to recover financial assets from the bank accounts of debtors who owe over £1,000 of tax or tax credit debts under certain circumstances. A minimum of £5,000 must be left in the debtors accounts.