The Budget 2013 in bullet points

1 min read Published: 20 Mar 2013

Here's a round-up of the key points from the Budget 2013:

Tax

  • Employment Allowance - worth up to £2,000 for every business employing staff
  • Personal income tax allowance raised to £10,000 by 2014
  • Beer Duty escalator scrapped and beer duty reduced by 1p
  • Fuel Duty increase planned for September cancelled
  • Tax-free childcare vouchers - 20% off first £6,000
  • Capital gains tax relief for sales of businesses to their employees
  • Govt. to introduce 'largest ever' package of tax avoidance & evasion measures
  • Bank Levy rate increased to 0.142% next year
  • Corporation tax reduced by 1% to 20% in April 2015
  • Stamp duty on shares in AIM scrapped
  • Research & Development Credit increased to 10%

Housing/Mortgages

  • Mortgage Guarantee Scheme - offering £130bn of help to help unable to raise deposit required by lenders
  • Shared equity loans for borrowers of new homes worth up to 20% of value

Pensions

  • New single tier pension brought forward to 2016

Public Sector Pay

  • Public sector pay rises limited to 1% for further year
  • Military personnel to be exempt from 1% public sector pay cap

Economy

  • Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee to get new powers MPC remit and permitted to use unconventional tools
  • CPI inflation target still to be 2% target.
  • Borrowing forecast for this year at £114bn
  • Growth forecast for 2013 revised down by 0.6% to 0.6%