Policy News Journal - 2014-15

The government says that, in the interest of open and transparent policy-making, it welcomes original and innovative ideas, which will be considered by HM Treasury as part of the policy- making process.

Business, charities and members of the public can submit these views via email to autumnstatementrepresentations@hmtreasury.gsi.gov.uk

For information on the correct procedure for submitting your representation, please view the guidance .

To allow for full consideration in advance of the Autumn Statement, any submission should be sent to HM Treasury by 17 October.

CIPP Autumn Statement summary 2014

4 December 2014

“The long term economic plan is working” says Mr O; “oh no it isn’t” says Mr B Well, it would appear the hard and real message is still one of watching the pennies. The Chancellor stated in his speech that, even though the deficit is falling it isn’t enough yet, therefore preparing us for more tightening of the public finances. Mr Osborne did however find time to throw in some jokes, including giving a plug to our much loved Wallace and Grommet! This statement was about boosting skills and announced the under 21yrs NI relief or jobs tax relief will be extended to those under 25yrs and has apprenticeship roles; presumably we will need a few more categories of NI then, or will the ones we have for under 21yrs suffice? He recognised the North, confirming more devolution for the “Northern Powerhouse”. Even though the purse strings will need to remain tight, there was some good news:  Personal Allowance to be further increased to £10,600 from April 2015;  Fuel duty frozen again;  New stamp duty system to help support those wanting to get onto the housing ladder, making, according to the Chancellor 98% of people better off under the new scheme;  Changes to the tax treatment on ISAs and pensions/annuities when a spouse has died;  Passenger duty for children under 12yrs on economy flights to go and from 2016 abolished altogether for children under 16yrs;  £2000 employment allowance extended to help with the employment of carers;  OTS recommendations to simplify the administration of employee benefits and expenses;  Improve the operation of the Construction Industry Scheme; and  Libor money to be used to remove VAT from air ambulance, search and rescue and hospice charities, including a refund of VAT paid. As ever the “devil is in the detail” and as the Autumn Statement 2014 runs to more than 100 pages – you can expect us to be providing you with more detail in the coming days but, in the meantime the CIPP policy team have put together the following highlights. One sentence we had hoped to clarify before publishing this summary was in respect of the comment made under disguising income; “the avoidance of tax through special purpose share schemes, miscellaneous losses and payments of benefits in lieu of salary;” The payments in lieu of salary could clearly have an impact on flexible benefits and or salary sacrifice; but don’t panic just yet the policy team has sought clarification and will report at a later date on the result. If you have comments (good or bad), or questions, please email policy .

CIPP Policy News Journal

08/04/2015, Page 32 of 521

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