Autumn Budget 2024: Our Summary

This is the first budget under the new labour government and it is the first budget to be delivered by a female chancellor – so history in itself!

There have been a lot of rumours over the last few weeks about various things that will be going up but not everything has delivered and there are some other curve balls 

The things that are not changing:

And now the things that have changed…

National Insurance

Capital Gains Tax

Stamp Duty

The stamp duty surcharge which is paid on second home purchases in England and Northern Ireland will go up from 3% to 5%.  This increase will also be applied to businesses purchasing a residential property.

Inheritance Tax

There haven’t been any significant movements with inheritance tax – there was speculation that there would be!   All of the current Nil Rate Band Thresholds are being held, as is the Residential Nil Rate Band until April 2030.  However, from April 2027, inherited pension pots will be subject to inheritance tax.  This is to remove the benefit of using a pension as a tax planning tool rather than their original purpose which is to fund retirement.  There are also restrictions being put in place for Agricultural Property Relief and Business Property Relief for estates worth more than £1million.

Minimum Wage & Benefits

Smoking, Alcohol & Fuel

VAT on private school fees

As was mentioned in the labour manifesto leading up to the election, the new government have delivered their promise that as from January 2025 20% VAT will be charged on education and boarding services provided by private schools.


As always, the spoken budget only runs for an hour, but the printed version usually has additional things that are not initially mentioned.  We have to wait for this to be released and we will advise if there is anything further that needs to be communicated.