General Election 2019: Tax plans from the political parties

09 December 2019

09 December 2019 by Steve Tebbutt Entrepreneurial business

With so much political noise and uncertainty it is difficult to make any informed plans for the future.

However, the recently released manifestos and costing from each of the political parties provide some promises and clues - so we have summarised the main tax changes expected from the three main UK political parties.

Of course, the extent to which any party will fulfil their election promises remains to be seen! Most of these plans seem more achievable than Trump’s wall, but how many will actually be in place five years from now?

Political parties tax plans

	Conservative Party	Labour Party	Liberal Democrats
Income Tax	Promised not to raise	Increase (to 45% tax above £80k, 50% above £125k, otherwise frozen Tax income from wealth at same rate as employment income. Scrap married couples allowance.	Add 1p to all income tax rates Scrap married couples allowance.
Capital Gains Tax	Reform of Entrepreneurs' Relief	Replace annual exemption with de-minimis £1k allowance Scrap Entrepreneurs' Relief.	Abolish annual allowance; one allowance for gains and salaries
Corporation Tax	Remain at 19%?	Increase main rate to 26% by April 2022 (21% small profits rate by April 2021) Review of reliefs Unitary taxation of multi-national groups; profits declared where activity occurs.	Increase to 20% and keep rate stable Reform PE rules to stop multinationals shifting profit out of UK Support OECD on taxation of multinationals.
NIC	Promised not to raise Increase threshold to £9.5k in 2020/21 and eventually to £12,500 Increase employer allowance from £3k to £4k Employer NIC 1 yr holiday for ex-armed forces.	Promised not to raise
IHT		Reverse planned cuts
VAT	Promised not to raise Remove from female sanitary products	Promised not to raise Remove charitable status VAT reliefs from private schools.	5% for electronic vehicles Remove from female sanitary products Refunding for colleges.
Pensions	Retain "triple lock" guarantee Address loophole for net pay schemes for those on £10-12k.	Retain "triple lock" guarantee Abandon plans to raise State Pension Age.	Review to protect those in the gig economy.
R&D	Increase tax credit to 13% Review scope (esp. cloud accounting and data).	Increased support Phase out R&D credits for large corporations, and Patent Box.	Increase national spending on R&D and creative industry tax support Allow R&D credit claim against cost of datasets & cloud accounting.
Capital Allowances	Increase SBAs to 3%
Stamp Duties	3% SDLT surcharge for non-res acquiring UK property	20% Offshore Company Property Levy in addition to SDLT Extend Stamp Duty Reserve Tax.	SDLT surcharge for non-residents purchasing second homes
Employment Related	Further increases to National Living Wage	Introduce Real Living Wage of at least £10ph for >16yos Employee share ownership requirement for large companies (>250 e'ees) Single status of "worker" for all except genuine self-employed Reform Apprenticeship Levy Excessive pay levy for employer where employees earn >£330k.	Review Living Wage and increase minimum wage for zero hours Employee rights to request shares in listed companies (>250 e'ees) New "dependent contractor" status between emp/self-emp End loan charge and review IR35 proposals Expand Apprenticeship Levy.
Business Rates etc	Business rates enhancement/extension for some businesses Review support for self-employed.	Review of land value tax alternative to business rates (commercial landlords)	Replace business rates with commercial landowner levy Simplification of business taxation and "start up" allowance.
Other	Consolidate anti-evasion and avoidance rules Increase digital services tax Plastic packaging tax	Soft drinks levy extended to milk Windfall tax on oil companies Reverse cuts to Bank Levy New levy on overseas companies buying housing Up to 200% council tax increase for second homes, and empty property tax	New general anti-avoidance rule and tax gap reduction target Improve digital services tax Air passenger duty increased/reduced for frequent/occasional flyers Up to 500% council tax increase for second homes

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Contact Tax Director, Steven Tebbutt to find out more about how we can help the plans for your business.

by Steve Tebbutt

Entrepreneurial business

General Election 2019: Tax plans from the political parties

Political parties tax plans

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