Budget Briefing 2018

By Andrew Goldstone, Partner, and Victoria Howarth, Managing Associate, Professional Support Lawyer

The Chancellor repeated several times in his Budget today that austerity is coming to an end. He spoke of a strong economy and the UK's new future outside the EU, saying that a deal with the EU was a "when", not an "if". The Chancellor restated from previous Budgets that "Britain is open for business", covering a range of measures to back British businesses to "invest and grow" and ended with a patriotic flourish, praising the indomitable spirit of the British people, building a Britain we can all be proud of.

A pledge to deliver on promised £12,500 basic and £50,000 higher rate income tax thresholds a year early in April 2019 will be expensive for the Government, but no doubt popular. A new tax on digital platforms for "established tech giants" from April 2020 and cuts of a third to business rates on the high street reflect wider calls for fairness in global and retail taxation respectively.

READ MORE: www.mishcon.com/news/briefings/budget-2018