EMI share schemes increased eligibility to widen scope

n a bid to encourage more people to save into stocks and shares, the current £20k per annum allowance for investing in ISA will be restricted to £12k per annum for investment into a cash ISA.

As expected, a new High Value Council Tax Surcharge was announced which will kick in from April 2028 and apply to homes worth over £2m.

Under current rules, if you sell more than 51% ownership of your business to an Employee Ownership Trust then there is a 100% relief, and no Capital Gains Tax has to be paid on the sale.

Two new, lower, multipliers will be introduced for these sectors from April 2026, in a bid to permanently reduce business rates for affected businesses.

As widely anticipated in the lead up the Budget, it was today announced that NIC will apply to pension contributions from April 2029, but only insofar as there will no longer be an NIC saving for employees and employers that sacrifice more than £2k pa of their salary to pay into a pension.

It was today announced that the government are introducing a new Electric Vehicle Excise Duty (eVED) from April 2028 which will impose a charge of 3p per mile.

The Budget documents confirm that the current 100% capital allowance that applies to the purchase of new electric vehicles and charge points will be extended for a further year until 31 March 2027.

It was also announced today that the government will introduce a new 40% first-year allowance for the purchase of main rate assets, to encourage investment, although this does not include the purchase of cars or second-hand assets.

Currently, assets which are not eligible for the Annual Investment Allowance or First Year Allowances, including hybrid cars, and second-hand electric cars, are subject to the main rate writing down allowance of 18% per annum.

The Labour government announced last year that the current 100% Inheritance Tax relief for shares and other business/agricultural assets will be restricted to £1m from April 2026 and, unlike other Inheritance Tax allowances, it would not transfer between spouses.