Budget Report 2017-18

12

Spring Budget 2017

Duties Air Passenger Duty (APD)

The rates of APD for the tax year 2018/19 will increase in line with RPI. From April 2018 the Scottish government intends to set its own rate of APD.

Alcohol and tobacco duties

As from 8 March 2017 duty rates on all tobacco products are increased by 2% above RPI inflation.

From 13 March 2017 the duty rates on beer, cider, wine and spirits will increase by RPI inflation.

Insurance Premium Tax

The standard rate of Insurance Premium Tax will increase from 10% to 12% from 1 June 2017. The government will introduce new anti-forestalling legislation to take effect from 8 March 2017.

Soft Drinks Industry Levy As announced at Budget 2016, the government will legislate for a Soft Drinks Industry Levy, with two thresholds at 5g and 8g of sugar per 100ml. The rates were announced at Spring Budget 2017 and will be 18p per litre (ppl) for the main rate and 24ppl for the higher rate. The levy will take effect from April 2018.

Other measures announced Business rates

The government will provide support for businesses facing significant increases in bills following the business rates revaluation due to take effect in England from April 2017. This includes: • support for small businesses losing Small Business Rate Relief (SBRR) to limit increases in their bills to the greater of £600 or the real terms transitional relief cap for small businesses. This means no small business that is coming out of SBRR will pay more than £600 more in business rates than they did in 2016/17; and • providing English local authorities with funding to support £300m of discretionary relief, to allow them to provide support to individual ‘hard cases’ in their local area. The government will also introduce a £1,000 business rate discount for public houses with a rateable value of up to £100,000, subject to state aid limits for businesses with multiple properties, for one year from 1 April 2017. At Budget 2016 the government announced an aim to deliver more frequent revaluations of properties – at least every three years. The government will set out its preferred approach for delivering this aim at Autumn Budget 2017 and will consult ahead of the next revaluation in 2022.

5G and broadband

The government has published a new 5G Strategy, which includes an investment of £16m to trial new 5G technology. There will also be £200m for local projects to build ‘fast and reliable’ full-fibre broadband networks.

FOR ELECTRONIC USE ONLY

Made with FlippingBook HTML5