The changes announced on Wednesday 6th March included cutting the main rate of Employee National Insurance from 10% to 8%, an additional £2.5bn in funding for the NHS from 2024-25, with an extra £3.4bn until 2030 that will go to specifically to improve productivity.
There have also been some changes in tax rates, with the highest rate of tax paid on profits from selling a property cut from 28% to 24% and a new system of paying tax for those that have ‘non-dom’ status to come in from 2025.
Non- dom status means that the person’s permanent home is outside of the UK, and tax is only paid on money earned in the UK.
Having non-dom status received a lot of attention because of Sunak’s wife, who has non-dom status, and the Guardian reported that she could have potentially avoided paying £20 million tax in the UK.
Those that have moved to the UK from April 2025 will not have to pay tax on money earned outside the UK for the first 4 years and there will be a 2 year transition period for those that have been here for over 4 years.
During the Chancellors speech he mentioned forecasts for the British economy, including that inflation has hit 4% of January of this year and is expected to be at the 2% Bank of England target by June.
The Office for Budget Responsibility has forecast UK growth to be 0.8% in 2024 and increasing to 1.9% in 2025.
All of these statistics are relatively positive given the last few years of high inflation and low growth rates, but given an election is looming, it is unlikely the Conservatives will be in power long enough to see many of these policy proposals come to fruition.
Edited By: Christina Major (News Editor)
