Bill Dodwell, Head Of Tax Policy At Deloitte Comments On The Budget

Is Budget 2013 a social media story? Chancellor George Osborne arrived on Twitter with his first tweet and photograph at 8.08am on Budget Day. His second tweet explained that he wouldn't be tweeting during the speech itself, which no doubt was a good plan. Tweets about the UK Budget averaged 6,000 per hour on Budget Day - but hit 60,000 during the hour Mr Osborne spoke.

Deloitte's analysis of the words and phrases used in the speech revealed four key themes including two tax topics: corporation tax and National Insurance; housing and active monetary policy.

Corporate Tax road-map

Corporation tax is about completion of the Coalition Government's Corporate Tax road-map. The main rate of corporation tax will be cut to 20% from 1 April 2015; this, together with the 21% rate from 2014, will be included in Finance Bill 2013 and enacted by the end of July. There's an important simplification dividend as well, since it will no longer be necessary to calculate the number of associated companies and perform marginal rate calculations. Above-the-line R&D tax credits go ahead at 10%, as does the 10% Patent Box and the various creative industries tax reliefs. EU approval is still awaited for video games relief as the Commission perhaps struggles to identify a 'culturally British' video game. There's a bit of anti-avoidance in relation to corporate tax loss selling. The change targets the sale of companies with excess capital allowances and other unclaimed potential losses. Consultation on the draft law is promised, even though it will apply from Budget Day.

Employee tax changes

National Insurance is all about a new £2,000 relief which will be offered to all employers from April 2014. 98% of the...