Firstly, the good news: there is record employment in UK, with the jobless rate to fall to 5.3% this year.
Pay
- National Minimum Wage will rise by 20p an hour to £6.70 from October 2015
Your contingent workforce
- Annual paper tax returns to be abolished, affecting contractors and self-employed workers
- Class 2 National Insurance contributions for self-employed workers to be abolished in the next parliament
Tax
- 40p tax rate will start at £43,300 from 2017/18, up from £42,385
- Personal tax allowance to rise to £10,800 in 2016, and £11,000 in 2017
- National Insurance Contributions from employers to be abolished for under-21s from April, extended to young apprentices from April 2016
Employee benefits
- From April 2015 trivial benefits-in-kind costing less than £50 will be subject to statutory exemption
- From April 2016, employers will be able to collect tax on specific benefits during pay periods using payroll rather than using end-of-year reporting
Apprenticeships
- Apprenticeship Vouchers to come in from 2017, which will give employers a say into how apprenticeships are funded
Pensions
- Pension pot lifetime allowance to drop from £1.25m to £1m from 2016
- Pensioners will be able to access their annuities – 55% tax charge abolished and tax applied at marginal rate
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