As had been expected, following the announcements at Autumn Statement 2023, the Finance Bill was published on 29 November 2023. The bill, which is expected to become Finance Act 2024 when it receives royal assent, runs to some 327 pages of legislation. In contrast to the format of the previous Finance Bill (which became F(No. 2)A 2023 and was set out across 354 sections and 24 schedules) this latest instalment has a mere 38 sections and 13 schedules.
This means that much of the bulk of the detail is in the schedules, with Sch 1 on the merged R&D scheme running to 34 pages. Reforms to the creative industry tax reliefs (in Schedules 2 to 6) occupy over 70 pages of the bill, and the Sch 9 pensions changes associated with abolition of the lifetime allowance run to nearly 100 pages.
The bill also includes the default cash basis proposals, the stamp taxes on shares changes (which will have effect from 1 January 2024 – having been given provisional effect via Autumn Statement Resolutions 19 and 20), and the multinational top-up tax legislation, introduced in F(No. 2)A 2023, is heavily amended including the addition of new provisions on the qualifying domestic top-up tax safe harbour election (Sch 12).
The bill will now progress through parliament, although dates for the forthcoming stages have not yet been announced. There has been no indication around how much parliamentary time will be given to scrutiny of the bill but, given the volume and complexity of the legislation, it would seem prudent to assume that many of the provisions will be considered in a Public Bill Committee setting as usual, perhaps running into January. With suggestions that the chancellor intends to present a Spring Budget, the government may well want to get this current Finance Bill onto the statute book before then, which would mean royal assent before the start of March 2024. Hopefully the Treasury will confirm the likely timetable both for progress of the Bill and the next Budget in due course.
As had been expected, following the announcements at Autumn Statement 2023, the Finance Bill was published on 29 November 2023. The bill, which is expected to become Finance Act 2024 when it receives royal assent, runs to some 327 pages of legislation. In contrast to the format of the previous Finance Bill (which became F(No. 2)A 2023 and was set out across 354 sections and 24 schedules) this latest instalment has a mere 38 sections and 13 schedules.
This means that much of the bulk of the detail is in the schedules, with Sch 1 on the merged R&D scheme running to 34 pages. Reforms to the creative industry tax reliefs (in Schedules 2 to 6) occupy over 70 pages of the bill, and the Sch 9 pensions changes associated with abolition of the lifetime allowance run to nearly 100 pages.
The bill also includes the default cash basis proposals, the stamp taxes on shares changes (which will have effect from 1 January 2024 – having been given provisional effect via Autumn Statement Resolutions 19 and 20), and the multinational top-up tax legislation, introduced in F(No. 2)A 2023, is heavily amended including the addition of new provisions on the qualifying domestic top-up tax safe harbour election (Sch 12).
The bill will now progress through parliament, although dates for the forthcoming stages have not yet been announced. There has been no indication around how much parliamentary time will be given to scrutiny of the bill but, given the volume and complexity of the legislation, it would seem prudent to assume that many of the provisions will be considered in a Public Bill Committee setting as usual, perhaps running into January. With suggestions that the chancellor intends to present a Spring Budget, the government may well want to get this current Finance Bill onto the statute book before then, which would mean royal assent before the start of March 2024. Hopefully the Treasury will confirm the likely timetable both for progress of the Bill and the next Budget in due course.
