The government published the Autumn Finance Bill 2023 on 29 November 2023. The Bill is officially known as Finance Bill 2023-24. The Bill contains the legislation for many of the tax measures announced in the recent Autumn Statement.
The Autumn Finance Bill will likely be followed by the main Spring Finance Bill 2024 which will be published after the Spring Budget and will cover any remaining tax measures needed ahead of April 2024.
Some of the many measures included within the Bill are:
- Making full expensing permanent for expenditure on plant & machinery.
- Extending the sunset clause for the Enterprise Investment Scheme and the Venture Capital Trust scheme to 6 April 2035.
- Reforming the film, TV and video games tax reliefs to refundable expenditure credits.
- Expanding the ‘cash basis’ – a simplified way for over four million smaller, growing traders to use a simpler method of calculating their profits and pay their income tax.
- Legislating for more generous support for loss-making R&D intensive SMEs as announced in the spring.
- Setting the rates of excise duty and certain environmental taxes.
The Bill received its first reading in Parliament on Monday 27 November 2023. It will now follow the normal passage through Parliament.
A separate Bill called the National Insurance Contributions (Reduction in Rates) Bill, was published on 23 November 2023 and will enact the NIC changes for employees and the self-employed as announced in the Autumn Statement.