Because of the hastened passage of the Finance Bill through Parliament before the election, the following provisions from the recent budget and the pre budget last winter have been dropped:
~ Cider duty increase (operates from 29 March, abolished from 30 June)
~ 50p per month land line tax due to start in October 2010
~ Abolition of Furnished Holiday let rules
Its possible that some or all of these provisions may re-appear in a subsequent budget, maybe as soon as this summer if a Labour government is in office.
Although the 50p per month land line tax would have effected most of our clients, it was a straight forward proposal. Of more interest to our clients will be the dropping of the abolition of the Furnished Holiday lettings rules. The FHL rules gave a privileged tax treatment to Furnished Holiday lets – these privileges were due to end on 5 April 2010 but now continue. Its unclear how long they will continue for, but there may be a planning window for anyone owning FHLs.