Budget 2018: predictions, hopes and fears

By Cristian Angeloni, 25 Oct 18

With the Budget only a few days away, industry experts share their views on what to expect

Investment and businesses

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Other experts believe that taxes are going to be raised and that they will be targeted at businesses and investment.

According to Simon Martin, technical services manager at Utmost Wealth Solutions: “With Brexit negotiations dominating the headlines, it would be quite surprising if there are any significant changes arising from the Budget.

“In particular, we do not anticipate any substantial changes regarding the non-dom market as many changes have been made over the last few years.

“Nevertheless, with a commitment to increase spending on the NHS and a nod to the end of austerity, this may be the catalyst for some changes to raise taxes.

“For example, Business Relief, where the relief is currently 100% for shareholdings in unquoted companies (subject to certain conditions). This relief may be seen by HMRC as rather generous where the shareholder has had no involvement in the establishing of the business, currently plays no active role in running it and their shareholding is really a tax motivated investment.

“The Office of Tax Simplification published a savings paper earlier this year. This identified that parts of the savings tax regime are maybe overly complicated. Still, perhaps now is not the time to make significant changes and what may be more likely is an emergency Budget after Brexit.”

However, Canada Life Internationals Christian said he doesn’t believe businesses and investment will be affected by next week’s budget.

“With the Brexit negotiations incomplete I cannot imagine that the UK Government will make any dramatic changes that will affect the cross-border investment market – why risk upsetting this before any of the negotiations are complete. “