Bill Dodwell Comments On Today's Budget

Bill Dodwell, head of tax policy at Deloitte, said: "Chancellor George Osborne delivered the final Budget of this Parliament. The announcements were fiscally neutral but that masks significant tax increases on banks which finance reductions for individuals and the oil and gas sector.

"Banks face a 25% increase in Bank levy, expected to raise over £900 million annually. They will also no longer be able to deduct future costs of misselling compensation - costing over £200 million annually. Bank levy has been increased eight times since its introduction and is a charge on the size of the bank's balance sheet. Some 70% is paid by the handful of large UK-headquartered banks.

"The major drop in the oil price brings overall economic benefits for individuals and business - but not for the oil and gas production sector. The government has reacted by cutting petroleum revenue tax (paid by old fields) from 50% to 35% and cutting the supplementary charge from 30% to 20%. This will see the marginal rate of tax for old fields drop from 80% to 67.5% and for other fields from 60% to 50%. There will also be a new investment allowance, which replaces several existing lower allowances. Overall this is a £1 billion package, expected to support £4 billion of investment.

"This Chancellor has made very substantial reforms to the taxation of savings over this parliament. Measures in this Budget will help ISA savers by allowing them to reinvest money withdrawn in the same tax year, due to arrive in autumn 2015. From April 2016, there will be a new £1,000 personal savings allowance (£500 for higher rate taxpayers - zero for additional rate taxpayers) which will mean that 95% of taxpayers will not pay...