The Spring Budget may have been pretty dull this year, but what impact, if any, will it have on the UK tech community?
We knew this would be the dullest budget in recent history – the Chancellor even leaked that in advance. The only real surprise was that ‘Spreadsheet Phil’ opted to make so many jokes throughout his speech.
It makes sense that in a year when he plans to deliver two budgets, that the first one would be a little uneventful. Better to announce the big changes in the Autumn giving business more time to get its tax affairs in order.
Self-employed
The headline grabber was undoubtedly the (now ditched) changes to the way we tax the self-employed. Under the status quo, self-employed people get what the IFS estimate to be a £1,240 tax advantage. It used to be the case that while the self-employed faced a lower rate of national insurance they also got a lot less out of the state pension. But recent reforms mean that’s no longer true....