Autumn Statement 2014: Key Points

The main points for the 2014 Autumn Statement, split into categories:

• Tax

  • 55 percent tax charge on inherited pensions to be abolished from April 2015.
  • Personal tax free allowance to be raised by an extra £100 over figures announced in the Budget. Tax free allowance from April 2015 is now £10,600. Higher rate threshold unchanged from £31,785.
  • The so-called 'Google Tax' where multi-national companies avoid tax by declaring profit outside of the UK is announced. 25% tax specifically for these circumstances and will raise up to £1 billion by 2019.
  • Air passenger duty to be removed for children under 12 from May 2015. From March 2016 all children under 16 will be exempted.
  • ISAs are to become transferrable upon death tax free, that is to say maintain their tax free status. Threshold are also increasing by £240 from 2015 so the new ISA limit will be £15,240.

• Business

  • Existing removal of Employers' National Insurance for people under 21, extended for young apprentices aged under 25.
  • Northern rail and the Trans-pennine Express rail to be replaced with invitations to tender for franchises being released. Will see brand new trains and stations with 20% increase in capacity and better quality.
  • Tax relief expanded for business contributions to flood defence schemes.
  • First-time exporters to be helped with a £20 million package of advisor.
  • Children's television tax relief from April 2015 - available at 25% on production costs.
  • Research and Development tax credits extended for SMEs - from 225% to 230%.
  • Consultation to be launched on tax relief for orchestras from April 2016.
  • Business rates support of £2.7 billion up to April 2019 - Extending the 2% cap on indexed increases in business rates to April 2016. Additionally the £1,000 business rates discount increased to £1,500 for restaurants, pubs, cafes and shops by 2015-16. Helping the high street.

• Housing and Land

  • £2 billion allocated to flood defence schemes.
  • Stamp duty overhauled and changed from existing tiered bands where amounts are calculated in single band, to a tiered system where only the portion of the property value within the band is charged tax. The exact bands are:
    
    

    Band	Percentage
    £0 to £125,000	0 percent
    £125,000 to £250,000	2 percent
    £250,000 to £925,000	5 percent
    £925,000 to £1,500,000	10 percent
    £1,500,000 and above	12 percent

  • £1.5 billion allocated to English road works.

• Health and Education

  • An extension to student loan for people under 30 taking on a post-graduate course. Up to £10,000 can be borrowed to be paid concurrently with an existing student loan.
  • NHS fund to upgrade GP services totalling £1.2 billion spread from 2015 to 2019. Funded from money collected from banks in fines for foreign exchange manipulation.
  • Employment allowance of £2,000 to be extended to carers meaning a family could employ a carer with a salary of up to £22,500 and not pay Employers' NICs.

• Social Security

  • Total spending to be reduced by £1 billion compared to the forecast in the 2014 Budget.
  • Reduction in access to benefits for migrants. EEA migrants need to be resident for 3 months before being able to claim JSA, Child Benefit and Child Tax Credits. Maximum claim length for JSA for a migrant to be reduced to 3 months also.

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