The Finance Bill is back and little has changed
Earlier this year the Government announced that a number of the controversial provisions within its Finance Bill would be dropped ahead of June’s snap general election to ensure an easy passage to Royal Assent.
Making Tax Digital and a number of other flagship proposals were subsequently left by the wayside, creating a great deal of uncertainty about their long-term future.
However, these provisions have been reintroduced in the Finance Bill 2017-19, which was presented to MPs in September.
They include:
- changes to the tax regime for non-domiciled individuals, including the requirement that they should have lived here for 15, instead of 17, of the last 20 years to claim UK resident status;
- a cut in the Money Purchase Annual Allowance from £10,000 to £4,000 for people who have accessed their pensions flexibly;
- the introduction of a £500 financial advice allowance, enabling savers to access £500 tax-free from their pension pots to pay for regulated financial advice; and
- from April 2018, a reduction in the tax-free Dividend Allowance from £5,000 to £2,000.
The situation became more complex soon after the draft Finance Bill was released, with the publication of a consultation on draft legislation to be included in the next Finance Bill – the Finance Bill 2017-18 – the final contents of which will be announced at the Autumn Budget on 22 November.