Posted March 17, 2023

2023 Spring Budget

On 15 March 2023, Jeremy Hunt announced his Spring Budget 2023, coined as the “budget for growth”, the latest budget aims to deliver long term, sustainable and healthy economic growth in several key areas. We have outlined below a summary of the main areas that will impact our clients.

Investment Zones

Following the regeneration projects of Canary Wharf and the Liverpool Docks, the government aims to deliver 12 new Investment Zones across the UK. Each zone will have access to £80 million of support for the necessary skills, infrastructure, tax reliefs and business rates retention involved in each project. These areas are to include Liverpool, Greater Manchester, East Midlands, West Midlands, North East, Teesside, South Yorkshire and West Yorkshire.

Capital Allowances

The Annual Investment Allowance was increased temporarily to £1 million in 2019 and was due to return to £200,000 from 1 April 2023 – this reduction has scrapped and the AIA limit will remain at £1 million indefinitely.

The super deduction tax relief will end this month, it will be replaced with a “full expensing” policy from 1 April 2023 for qualifying plant and machinery, this policy will run to 31 March 2026. A 100% FYA will be available for expenditure on new and unused plant and machinery that usually qualifies for the 18% main rate. A temporary FYA of 50% will also be available for expenditure on new and unused special rate plant and machinery, including integral features in a building, and long-life assets that normally qualify for 6% writing down allowances.

R&D Tax Relief

The changes to prevent companies from claiming R&D relief in the UK for project work done overseas will be postponed until April 2024.

The changes to the relief available in the SME scheme that were announced in the Autumn statement will go ahead and take effect from April 2023. However, these changes meant that loss-making companies would see their effective repayable R&D credit reduce from 33.4% to 18.6%. Any loss-making businesses who spend more than 40% of their expenditure on qualifying R&D will be able to claim a 27% repayable credit.

Pensions

The annual allowance for pension contributions will increase from £40,000 to £60,000 for 2023/24 tax year. At the same time the maximum adjusted income will increase from £240,000 to £260,000 and where the allowance is tapered the minimum taper will be £10,000.

The £1.07 million pensions Lifetime Allowance will be abolished.

As always, please do not hesitate to contact us should you have any queries about the budget or would like further information.