Budget Day will be 22 April 2009

Newsletter issue - March 09.

Normally March is the month in which the Chancellor of Exchequer presents his Budget, during which he announces the tax rates and thresholds for the coming tax year. However, this year, for various political reasons, the Budget speech has been delayed until 22 April 2009.

This delay should not affect the running of the tax system, as all the tax rates, thresholds and allowances for 2009/10 were announced in the Pre-Budget report on 26 November 2008. The PAYE codes for 2009/10 including the new personal allowance of £6,475 have already been issued, and the new PAYE and NIC tables are available from HMRC. Details of other Pre-Budget report announcements that affect employers are given in the Employer Bulletin no. 31, which was recently sent to all employers.

One announcement that was not made in November was the threshold for compulsory VAT registration. This increased from £64,000 to £67,000 on 1 April 2008, so the threshold could be frozen at that level in 2009. The UK has one of the highest thresholds for compulsory VAT registration in the EU, so freezing this threshold would not put the UK out of line with other countries. A freeze on the VAT threshold would also bring in more tax, as more businesses would have to become VAT registered.

Look out for our Budget News email sent out the day after the budget!