After a fairly torrid few weeks for the Government, Prime Minister, Stock Markets, Currency and the UKs economy, a further U turn from the Government Growth Plan of 23rd September 2022 has been announced.

As a recap the first U turn was 3rd October, when the proposed abolition of the 45% Additional Rate Income Tax Band on income over £150k was withdrawn – this rate will remain into 2023/24, along with the associated Dividend Tax Rate.

Today we have a further U turn with the 2023/2024 increases in Corporation Tax, which the Growth Plan abolished, have been reinstated.

This means our original briefing on 2023 Corporation Tax Changes remains current.

To recap

  • Currently Corporation Tax is a flat 19% on business profits, regardless of their magnitute
  • The Johnson/Sunak administration announced an increase of the basic Corporation Tax Rate to 25% from April 2023, ie 2023/24 fiscal year.
  • The increase also brought in a Small Profits Rate of 19% where profits are below £50k, and a taper between £50k and £250k.
  • The Growth Plan on 23rd September reversed these increases, moving back to a flat 19% regardless of profits
  • Todays U turn takes us back to the original proposed 25% rate and associated Small Profits19% rate

Its worth noting that the interaction of the Small Profits Threshold and Marginal Relief creates anomalies with marginal tax rates being higher than 25%.  The  marginal Corporation Tax Rates are:

 

Profit Band Marginal Rate
£0 to £50,000 19%
£50,000 to £249,000 26.5%
£250,000 plus 25%

 

Of course no Government Minsters are talking about 26.5% as its an inconvenient truth.

Note the above is the Marginal Rate of tax on each extra bit of profit.  Average Blended Rate will always be 25% or below.

Our briefing expands on this:

2023 Corporation Tax Changes