What has already been announced and will come into effect 1st/6th April 2012

Tax Allowance:

For individuals aged under 65, the allowance will rise by £630 on 6th April to £8,105 for the 2012-13 tax year. The upper threshold of the basic rate will fall by £630 to £34,370 in from 6th April.

For 65-to-74-year-olds, the personal allowance will rise from £9,940 to £10,500. For 75-year-olds and over, the allowance will rise from £10,090 to £10,660.

The personal allowance gradually reduces, regardless of age, with income above £100,000.

Inheritance Tax

The £325,000 threshold for tax free inheritance remains unchanged, but from April, the rate of inheritance tax for amounts over £325,000 will be cut from 40% to 36% for estates that leave 10% or more to charity.

Pensions

The full basic state pension will rise by £5.30 to £107.45 a week in April.For private pensions, a lifetime allowance for tax relief on pension savings, of £1.5m, will be introduced.

Within the Budget 2012 there were a few elements that will be of interest to small business, the headline grabbing announcement of a fall in corporation tax is only for large companies with the small business rate staying at 20%.

Budget 2012 Tax Allowances 

Personal income tax allowance will rise to £9,205 from 6th April 2013 and the 50p top rate of tax will be cut to 45p.

Age-related allowances will be removed for new pensioners who reach 65 years of age after 6th April 2013, and replaced with a single personal allowance for all.

Allowances for those already of pension age to be frozen, and includes all pensioners who will become 65 before 6th April 2013.

Child Benefit

Will be phased out when someone in a household has an income of more than £50,000. It will fall by 1% for every £100 earned over £50,000.Only those earning more than £60,000 will lose the whole benefit. Households will be sent a questionnaire and the reduction in child benefit will be managed by the self assessment system, which will put more people back into self assessment.