Impact on large scale businesses

With a corporate tax increase postponed until 2023, chancellor Rishi Sunak aimed his Budget at increasing investment and targeting support for the retail, leisure, and hospitality sectors.

• Chancellor Rishi Sunak announced a freeze in income tax, national insurance, and capital gains tax – but will raise corporation tax on larger businesses in 2023 to help the UK recover from the coronavirus.

• His Budget included an additional £65 billion in coronavirus support measures, bringing the government’s total fiscal assistance to £407 billion during the pandemic.

• The increase in corporation tax will be mitigated by what Sunak refers to as a “super deduction,” an initiative that he claims will increase business investment by around £30 billion per year.

• Meanwhile, the furlough programme will continue, and VAT in the hospitality and tourism industries will remain at 5% until the end of September.

1. Big business will bear the brunt of the cost of coronavirus, the chancellor, Rishi Sunak, revealed in his spring Budget announcement.
2. Implementation is planned for April 2023, at which point the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) anticipates the economy will have recovered.
3. There will be no increase to income tax, national insurance, VAT, inheritance tax and capital gains tax, while pensions allowances will remain unaffected.
4. “It’s fair and necessary to ask them to contribute to our recovery,” he said, adding that, even at 25%, UK corporation tax will be the lowest amongst the G7 nations.

Sunak also announced a change to the tax treatment of losses, allowing businesses to carry back losses of up to £2m for three years, providing a “significant cash flow benefit”. The increase in corporation tax will be tapered above £50,000, with the full 25% rate reserved for those generating more than £250,000 in profits – equating to 10% of businesses.

The deduction for superannuation

The increase in corporation tax will offset what Sunak refers to as a “super deduction” designed to encourage investment. Rather than the current proportional offset – or full expensing, which would have reduced tax by the total cost of acquisition – taxable profits can be deducted by 130% of capital expenditure. Sunak used the example of a construction company investing £10 million in new equipment. The current regime would have reduced the company’s taxable income by £2.6 million. With the super deduction, that reduction rises to £13 million.

Pandemic support to continue:

1. The Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (also known as the furlough scheme) will continue until September. Businesses contribute 10% of furloughed staff’s wages from July and 20% in August and September.
2. A new Recovery Loan Scheme of up to £10m, with an 80% government guarantee, is also to be introduced, replacing the Bounce Back Loan and the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CBILS), both of which are due to come to an end shortly.
3. VAT in the hospitality and tourism sectors will remain at 5% until the end of September, meanwhile, when an interim rate of 12.5% will be imposed for a further six months before a reversion to the standard rate in April 2022.

Economic recovery

1.  When combined with announcements in the Spending Review and the 2020 Budget, total fiscal support measures amount to £407 billion, in what Sunak described as “one of the largest, most comprehensive, and sustained responses ever seen” to “one of the largest, most comprehensive, and sustained economic shocks the country has ever faced.” Because of the magnitude of the economic stimulus, the OBR now predicts a faster and more sustained recovery than it did in November 2020, with the economy expected to return to pre-coronavirus levels by the middle of 2022, six months earlier than previously predicted.

The business response

Furthermore, the UK’s global scientific and technological standing was emphasised, with promises to boost R&D through a new unsponsored points-based visa to attract the best and most promising international talent, as well as a radically simplified bureaucracy for high-skilled visa applications across the economy.

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