NI specific proposals: Whilst this proposal has been on the cards for a while now the good news is that a consultation paper will be published in autumn on 'rebalancing the Northern Ireland economy', looking at options including the creation of economic enterprise zones and changing the corporation tax rate for businesses in the province.
That aside, NI will benefit in a similar fashion to other regions from the reductions in corporation tax and the NIC Start-up Relief scheme. The increase in the capital gains tax entrepreneurs relief which will help encourage SME owners to grow and ultimately sell their business at an effective capital gains rate of only 10%.
Entrepreneurs' relief boosted: The 10 per cent rate of CGT that used apply to the first £2 million of entrepreneurs' gains over a lifetime will apply to the first £5 million of those gains from midnight at the end of 22 June.
Good for investors and entrepreneurs at a time when the UK is keen to support and attract such activities.
National insurance (NI) contributions: Start-ups outside London and the South East will save up to £5,000 in employers' NI contributions for each of their first ten employees.
This measure will be introduced no later than September this year, but the Chancellor has promised that any business set up from the date of the Budget onwards will benefit if they meet the regulations of the scheme (not yet published). In addition, the threshold at which employers start to pay NI will be raised by £21 per week above indexation in April 2011
For business start-ups this will be a valuable relief to encourage job creation at the early stages of a new venture.
Lower earners to pay less income tax: Well touted in advance of the Budget, the personal allowance for under-65s will be increased by £1,000 in April 2011, to £7,475. The ultimate aim is to raise it to £10,000.
Again this will ultimately benefit individual taxpayers however it is also seen as another measure to encourage more people back to work and perhaps with more money in their pockets to encourage consumer spending, though the VAT rise may well put paid to that.