On 22 February 2024, the Autumn Finance Bill, which was published after the 2023 Autumn Statement, completed its passage through the UK parliamentary process when it received Royal Assent and became Finance Act 2024.
Finance Act 2024 reflects key pieces of tax legislation announced at the Autumn Statement, including ‘full expensing’ for companies being made permanent, the merged R&D tax relief regime which will commence from 1 April 2024 and amendments to the various creative sector tax reliefs.
The “sunset” clause of April 2025 for shares issued to qualify for tax reliefs under the Enterprise Investment Scheme and Venture Capital Trust scheme has been extended to April 2035. Amendments have also been made to the cash basis which becomes compulsory for unincorporated businesses from 6 April 2024, unless the sole trade or partnership opts to apply the accruals basis.