Budget Summary

A Budget Summary March 2015
•The personal income tax allowance will rise to £10,800 in April 2016 and £11,000 in 2017.
•The minimum wage will rise to £6.70 this autumn.
•Five million pensioners will be given access to their annuities.
•Isas will become more flexible, enabling people to take out their savings and pay them in again without losing the tax-free benefits.
•Help to Buy ISAs will be introduced to help first-time buyers save for a deposit. For every £200 they save, the government will top it up with £50.
•From April next year, the first £1,000 of interest earned on savings will be tax-free for standard-rate taxpayers. Higher rate taxpayers will get a £500 allowance.
•The annual tax return to be abolished altogether, with information uploaded digitally throughout the year. "This spells the death of the annual tax return," says Osborne.
•No changes to tobacco or gaming duties. Duty on spirits and cider cut by 2 per cent, wine duty frozen.
•Fuel duty increase scheduled for September has been cancelled, marking the longest duty freeze in over twenty years.
•Osborne confirms the design of the "tails" side of the new 12-sided pound coin.
•New measures against tax avoidance and evasion will raise £3.1 billion over the forecast period.
•From next year, the Lifetime Allowance for pensions will be reduced from £1.25m to £1m. This will save around £600 million a year, says Osborne.
•Farmers will be able to average their incomes for tax purposes over five years.
•There will be a "major expansion" in mental health services, with £1.25bn spent on mental health services for children and new mums.

• Charities will be able to claim automatic Gift Aid on the first £8,000 of small donations, up from £5,000.
• A string of measures will be introduced to build the "Northern powerhouse" and devolve powers, including some regions retaining 100 per cent of business rates raised
• New loans announced for postgraduate students.
• Corporation tax will fall to 20 per cent in April 2015, a fall of 8 per cent since 2010.
• North Sea oil industry to get tax cuts worth £1.3bn