Friday 2 November 2018

Finance Fridays – The Budget 2018

We were looking at how to avoid getting caught out by email scams for last week's Finance Fridays. This week we are seeing what was announced in this year's Budget and how it may affect us.

Personal tax allowances – The Chancellor took the decision to bring the rise in personal tax allowances forward by a year. This means that in April 2019 the basic personal allowance rises from £11,850 to £12,500 a year. This means income you receive up to £12,500 in a year will not be taxed. The higher rate allowance (40% tax rate) increases from £46,351 to £50,000 a year.

Minimum wage
– This will increase by 4.9% from April 2019. For people over 25 it is called the National Living Wage and will rise from £7.83 an hour to £8.21 an hour. For those aged 21 to 24 the hourly rate goes from £7.38 to £7.70 an hour. If you are 18 to years old it will increase from £5.90 to £6.15 an hour. Apprentices will see their minimum hourly rate increase from £3.70 to £3.90.

Fuel duty – Frozen again for the ninth year in a row.

Alcohol tax
– Duty on beer, cider and spirits frozen for a year. The duty on wine will increase in line with RPI. This will put around 7p on a bottle of still wine and 9p on a bottle of sparkling wine. White cider, which is usually of a higher alcohol content to standard cider, will be taxed at a new higher rate.

Tobacco – The duty of tobacco increased by inflation plus two per cent at 6pm on Monday 29th October 2018. This will around an extra 24p on a pack of 20 cigarettes.

VAT threshold
– The level of turnover for compulsory registration will be frozen at £85,000 for the next two years.

Digital services tax – This will be introduced from April 2020 and designed to tax online companies with revenues of more than £500million. This has been dubbed the 'Amazon Tax'.

Future High Streets Fund
– Councils across the country will be given a share of £675million to help improve and redevelop high streets. Also business rates will be cut by a third for two years for shops, pubs, restaurants and cafés in England with a rateable value of £51,000 and under. This will be a saving for 90% of businesses.

Are you are winner or loser in this year's Budget? Was there something else you would have liked to have seen in the Budget?

If you want to join in with this week's Finance Fridays then add your link to the linky below. Any post concerning financial matters is allowed. Full details here. It doesn't have to be published today as you have until 23.55 on Tuesday 6th November 2018 to join in.

Finance Fridays



If you use Twitter, Facebook, Instagram or Google+ please tag me and I will retweet, Like, Share or +1 as appropriate. You can find me here:

Twitter:@jibberjabberuk- please use the hashtag #FinanceFridays
Facebook: Jibberjabberuk
Instagram:@jibberjabberuk
Google+:Jibber JabberUK

No comments:

Post a Comment

I appreciate your comments. If you have any tips, tricks or tweaks please pass them on!