Early details on Budget leaked by OBR confirm new raft of tax policies
Photo Credit: flickr.com/KirstyO’Connor/HMTreasury
EMPLOYER National Insurance threshold contributions (NIC) have been frozen for three years from 2028-29, according to leaked information about the UK Budget.
The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) published an early report discussing ramifications from the UK Budget, listing a raft of new tax personal tax changes. According to the OBR, this is expected to provide £14.9billion in 2029-30.
This will be done through a combination of three moves from the UK Government, including a freeze on personal tax and employer National Insurance contributions thresholds for another three years, which is set to raise £8billion. It is also worth noting, Scotland sets its own threshold rates for personal National Insurance rates and a decision for this will be made when the Scottish Budget is published in January 2026.
Further to this, the UK Government will introduce NIC charges on salary-sacrificed pensions contributing, raising £4.7billion. This will, reportedly, be introduced from April 2029 and will see a “salary sacrifice” on pension contributions above £2,000, meaning they will be treated as ordinary employee pension contributions in the tax system.
The final contributions towards this will be done through an increase the tax rates on dividends, property and savings income by 2 percentage points, raising £2.1billion.
Additional tax charges include:
• A reduction to the writing down allowance main rate in corporation tax, which raises £1.5billion;
• A new mileage-based charge on battery electric vehicles and plug-in hybrid cars from April 2028, raising £1.4billion. Reportedly, the charge will equal £0.03 per mile for battery electric cars and £0.015 per mile for plug-in hybrid cars, with the rate per mile increased annually with the CPI figure.
• These tax rises are partially offset as well by the continued freeze to. fuel duty for a further five months, followed by staged increases from September 2026, costing £2.4billion next year and £0.9billion each year thereafter.
Rachel Reeves, Chancellor of the Exchequer has also confirmed additional cash for devolved governments as she continued to announce her budget, with £820million for the Scottish Government – who has received the highest amount when compared to any other devolved UK Government.
This story will continued to be updated as the Chancellor’s Autumn Statement is ongoing.
