Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne delivered his eighth Budget on Wednesday (March 16).
Here are the main points of what he said on the subjects of pensions and savings, and personal taxation:
- The annual Isa limit to rise from £15,240 to £20,000
- New ‘lifetime’ Isa for the under-40s, with government putting in £1 for every £4 saved
- People who save a maximum of £4,000 towards a home deposit or retirement will get a £1,000 top-up from the state every year until they turn 50
- New state-backed savings scheme for low-paid workers – worth up to £1,200 over four years
- The Money Service Advice to be abolished
- The threshold at which people pay 40% income tax will rise from £42,385 now to £45,000 in April 2017
- Tax-free personal allowance, the point at which people pay income tax, to rise to £11,500 in April 2017
- Capital Gains Tax to be cut from 28% to 20%, and from 18% to 10% for basic-rate taxpayers
- 0.5% rise in insurance premium tax
- Class 2 National Insurance contributions abolished, which the government says gives a tax cut of more than £130 to three million self-employed workers from 2018