Anthony Andreasen, director of corporate tax at Gosforth-based RMT Accountants & Business Advisors, says: “Minimising the amount of personal and corporate tax revenue that is unfairly evaded has been a strong theme of George Osborne’s recent Budgets, as well as an important political issue, and providing HMRC with an additional £750m to put towards achieving this goal shows that it very much remains in his sights.“The permanent increase to £200,000 of the Annual Investment Allowance and the phased introduction of new lower Corporation Tax rates should give North East businesses greater capacity and flexibility towards planning their finances over the longer term, while the region’s smaller owner-managed firms will welcome increased allowances on employee National Insurance.
“It will be interesting to see the tax implications of the changes announced around mortgage interest relief being restricted to the basic rate for buy-to-let landlords, as this is a market that has thrived in the North East over the last couple of years, and the new measures will therefore impact on many first-time landlords who’ve not previously had great experience of managing tax-related issues on their properties.”