When will the Budget be held?
11 December 2019
The Budget was initially scheduled to be held on 6 November 2019 with Sajid Javid at the helm but was postponed due to the call for a general election, which is now taking place on 12 December 2019.
The situation has left many payroll and finance professionals wondering when the Budget will be delayed until, and how this will affect them in their roles. This is all dependent on who wins the election and whether there is a coalition government or not.
The Conservatives have confirmed that, should they be re-elected, they will not hold a Budget until February 2020 as they intend to complete Brexit on 31 January 2020 and releasing a Budget prior to that point seems redundant. Labour shadow chancellor, John McDonnell has also confirmed a February Budget and in the event of a Labour win, this will go ahead on 5 February 2020.
As the new tax year begins on 6 April 2020, this leaves very little time for software developers to make amendments to thresholds within payroll systems and a very small timeframe for payrollers to prepare for the upcoming changes.
A popular theory is that, due to time constraints, new tax rates and limits won’t be applied until 18 May 2020. This used to be the way of implementing changes at the turn of a tax year for a brief period prior to the current process in which new thresholds take effect from 6 April each year.
Nothing is currently set in stone and everything is subject to change. We do not know who will win the election and we, therefore, do not know if there will be any changes to tax or NI thresholds or both! Hopefully, once the results of the election have been released on 13 December 2019, there will be more clarity on the issue for payroll and finance professionals ahead of the Christmas period.
Information provided in this news article may be subject to change. Please make note of the date of publication to ensure that you are viewing up to date information.