After much debate on its passage through Parliament, the Finance Bill following the March Spring Budget has now received Royal Assent. To give its full title, the Finance (No. 2) Act 2023 received Royal Assent on 11 July 2023.
This means that various proposals brought into the Bill are now final and can be acted upon. This includes measures like:
- Capital expenditure – the new, albeit temporary rules, allowing full expensing of qualifying expenditure incurred between 1 April 2023 and 31 March 2026.
- Pensions – the increase in the annual allowance to £60k, with the high-income cap also being increased to £10k.
- Pensions – the abolition of the lifetime allowance charge.
- R&D – the various new provisions relating to claim procedures and qualifying expenditure.
- Share schemes – the doubling of the value of shares that can be held under a Company Share Option Plan and the relaxation of some of the requirements for the Enterprise Management Incentive Scheme.
- Administration – limiting the right of assigning an income tax repayment (primarily aimed at fraud prevention).
