Government’s Budget 2024/2025 and What It Means For You And Your Business SMEs

Business taxes –

• Firms to pay National Insurance (Employer NI Contributions) on workers’ earnings above £5,000 from April, down from £9,100 currently, with the rate increasing from 13.8% to 15%. – That means companies will start paying 2% more employer NI contributions from April 2025 on employees earning above £416.67 monthly (currently its 13.8% on each employee’s earning more than £758.33 monthly) – For example, employers will have to pay additional £794 annually (£66 monthly) in employers’ NI contributions to HMRC for each employee earning 24K annually (2K monthly) salary.

• Employment allowance – which allows companies to reduce their NI liability – to increase from £5,000 to £10,500. –This is a bit of lifeline that will give some relief to the businesses.

• Main rate of corporation tax, paid by businesses on taxable profits over £250,000, to stay at 25% until next election.

• Legal minimum wage – for over-21s to rise from £11.44 to £12.21 per hour from April. – you need to carefully plan increase in minimum wages of workers from April 2025.

• Small firms that take less than £90,000 are exempt from charging their customers VAT.

Personal taxes

• Freeze on income tax and National Insurance thresholds to end in 2028, preventing people from being dragged into higher tax bands as their wages rise!

• Capital gains tax paid on profits from selling shares to increase from up to 20% to up to 24% – rates on additional property sales to stay same

• Freeze on inheritance tax thresholds extended beyond 2028 to 2030!

• Freeze on personal tax allowances thresholds £12,570!

• Stamp duty surcharge, paid on second home purchases in England and Northern Ireland, to go up from 3% to 5%.

Wages, benefits, and pensions

• Legal minimum wage for over-21s to rise from £11.44 to £12.21 per hour from April.

• Rate for 18 to 20-year-olds to go up from £8.60 to £10, as part of a long-term plan to move towards a “single adult rate”!

• Eligibility widened for the allowance paid to full-time carers, by increasing the maximum earnings threshold from £151 to £195 a week. For more information please visit https://www.gov.uk/carers-allowance

What will the new NLW and NMW rates be from April 2025?

• The National Living Wage (NLW) – the NLW is paid to employees who are 21 years old or over and is set at a higher rate to cover the additional responsibilities and costs that an older adult will incur.
• The National Minimum Wage (NMW) – the NMW is paid to employees or apprentices of at least school-leaving age and is paid until the employee qualifies for the NLW. The NMW is paid at a lower rate than the NLW to reflect the age and lower financial responsibilities of the employee.
• The Apprentices – Apprentices are entitled to the apprentice rate if they’re either:
  • aged under 19.
  • aged 19 or over and in the first year of their apprenticeship.

These rates are for the National Living Wage (for those aged 21 and over) and the National Minimum Wage (for those of at least school leaving age). The rates change on 1 April every year.

For more information, please read the guidance form HMRC website https://www.gov.uk/national-minimum-wage/who-gets-the-minimum-wage