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 Bill has now completed its passage through the House of Commons and the 1st reading at the House of Lords. This stage signals the start of the Bill’s journey through the Lords. The 2nd reading of the Bill in the House of Lords is scheduled to take place on 21 February 2024.
The Bill is known as a ‘Money Bill’ which means that the further stages of the bill namely, the committee stage, report stage and third reading at the House of Lords are usually formalities. Once these steps have been completed, the Bill will receive Royal Assent and become an Act of Parliament.
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 spring.
- Setting the rates of excise duty and certain environmental taxes.
The Autumn Finance Bill will be followed by the Spring Finance Bill 2024 which will be published after the Spring Budget which is taking place on 6 March 2024. This will cover any remaining tax measures needed ahead of April 2024 and will become the second Finance Act of 2024.