Spring Statement takes place this week

The Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves will deliver the Spring Statement later this week on Wednesday 26 March. It is expected that her speech will be delivered after Prime Minister’s questions at around 12.30pm. Speculation has been rife recently that the Chancellor may be forced to abandon the Government’s stated policy of only announcing tax changes at one fiscal event per year in the Autumn. In recent days the Chancellor has ruled out further tax rises, but not other minor tax changes. We will be reporting on the Spring Statement in full in next Monday’s edition of Chartered Accountants Tax News.

The Institute for Fiscal Studies has published two useful articles on the upcoming Spring Statement:

• https://ifs.org.uk/articles/todays-ons-figures-reinforce-challenges-next-weeks-spring-statement, and
• https://ifs.org.uk/articles/chancellor-cannot-hide-ever-her-big-political-choice.

The House of Commons Library has also published a background briefing.

The current expectation is therefore that the Spring Statement will mainly be an economic update coupled with the announcement of spending cuts hence any tax changes are expected to be minor, with the Chancellor delaying any significant tax announcements to the autumn. However, at a time of significant geopolitical disruption, the Spring Statement remains important and may give hints as to what we can expect from the Summer 2025 spending review and the Autumn Budget.

Tax and other consultations are expected to be launched in conjunction with the Spring Statement, including some on the Corporate Tax Roadmap. This was confirmed by the Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury who announced in a recent conference speech on 11 March that the following consultations will open in Spring 2025:

• Closing in on promoters of marketed tax avoidance,
• A consultation on how businesses can be better supported when seeking to deliver major projects in the UK,
• Use of advance clearances in Research and Development tax reliefs, and
• Enhancing HMRC’s powers to deal with tax advisers who facilitate non-compliance.

Use HMRC’s check the status of tax policy consultations page to keep abreast of consultations. As more consultations open in the coming weeks, these will appear on this page.

HMRC has stated that there will be a larger than normal number of consultations being opened with overlapping periods and it recognises that this will have an impact on the ability of stakeholders to respond.