This was an interesting one, in the fact that it was a bit of a non-event. We were all waiting for the big changes that were predicted and actually it all fell a bit flat. The main changes to mention are:
- From April 2019, you can earn up to £12,500 before you pay any income tax and you will start paying the higher rate tax once you earn £50,000 and over. These were changes we already knew about but have been brought forward from April 2020.
- Premium bonds minimum investment has dropped to £25 and can be gifted to a child from anyone, not just a parent or grandparent.
- The annual ISA allowance is staying at £20,000 for 2019/20 tax year but the Junior ISA allowance is increasing to £4,368 for 2019/20.
- The Lifetime Allowance will rise to £1,055,000 from April 2019.
Although we don’t consider these changes to be particularly dramatic, we always take them into consideration in our planning.