Well, the Chancellor’s Summer Budget wasn’t as bad as I expected and certainly not as bad as my Capital Gains prediction of 40%. Read on for my personal views and analysis of what it means for you and/or your business.

The Capital Gains Tax annual exemption of £10,100 still stands which is good news for investors. My advice is to allocate your annual exemption to post 22 June gains to obtain relief at 28% rather than 18%.

As for VAT – I was spot on with this big ticket rise so no surprises here.  This was always going to be a soft option for the Coalition. It could have been far worse with an increase on clothes or food which would have been painful for all concerned. There is of course no impact where supplies are business to business and the increase can simply be passed down the chain of supply. However this will be of little comfort to the retailer who will have to decide if he can charge the increase to customers or absorb it into his profit margin.

Business owners are getting a welcome tax break with cuts in the main Corporation tax over the next four years and even with the small reductions in the Annual Investment and other Capital allowances there is still a decent amount in the pot to play with.

There is big news on pensions in that the complicated rules due for introduction next April limiting relief to the basic rate for those earning over £150k are to be scrapped. However the principal that tax relief for higher earners should be restricted is still fully embraced, albeit that the method of restricting relief will be simplified by the introduction of a cap on contributions of somewhere between £30 – £45k.

You’ll be pleased to know that George Osborne plans a wider reform of the pensions system which will consider abolishing the requirement to take an annuity at age 75.

For my money it’s not the tax items which are the centrepiece of this Budget, it’s how the spending cuts will eventually filter through. The Chancellor is planning to cut £3 from spending and a £1 from tax in the public sector. For those working on Government contracts cuts in departmental budgets could cause a problem over time.

Something else to watch out for – the Chancellor didn’t mention in the Budget but he has plans to review Non-domicile taxation.  I’ll keep you posted on any developments here.

So all in all, not as bad as we feared and despite the cuts still scope for businesses to grow and individuals to invest.

Read the Summer Budget here