UK Autumn Statement 2023 – miscellaneous measures

The main Autumn Statement 2023 publication contained details throughout of a range of measures and changes which did not specifically feature in the Chancellor’s main speech. We summarise these below.

• The Government will tackle the long-standing problem of “small pot” pensions and intends to launch a call for evidence on a lifetime provider model which would allow individuals to have contributions paid into their existing pension scheme when they change employer, providing greater agency and control over their pension. This call for evidence will also examine a potential expanded role for collective defined contribution schemes in future. The Government will also introduce the multiple default consolidator model to enable a small number of authorised schemes to act as a consolidator for eligible pension pots under £1,000; 

• As confirmed by HM Treasury in October, the Government will legislate to extend the Enterprise Investment Scheme and Venture Capital Trusts to 2035 hence they will not end as originally intended on 5 April 2025; 

• The Government is currently reviewing responses to the consultation on taxation of environmental land management and ecosystem service markets and will respond in due course; 

• The Growth Market Exemption, which provides relief from Stamp Duty and Stamp Duty Reserve Tax, is being extended to include smaller, innovative growth markets. This extension will also increase the threshold for the market capitalisation condition that is used within the exemption from £170 million to £450 million. These changes are included in the Autumn Finance Bill 2023 for implementation from 1 January 2024;  

• The offshore receipts in respect of intangible property (“ORIP”) rules are being abolished in respect of income arising from 31 December 2024. This repeal will be legislated for in a future Finance Bill, and will take place alongside the introduction of the Pillar Two Undertaxed Profits Rule, which aims to more comprehensively discourage the multinational tax-planning arrangements that ORIP sought to counter;  

• Exempting legislation is included in the Autumn Finance Bill 2023 to exempt from corporation tax compensation payments made under the Historical Shortfall Scheme, Group Litigation Order schemes, Suspension Remuneration Review or Post Office Process Review Scheme. This draft legislation aligns the taxation of onward payments of compensation to that of individual recipients; 

• Further to the publication of draft legislation on 18 July 2023, the Government is making amendments to the rules for Real Estate Investment Trusts which aim to enhance the competitiveness of the regime. The changes will take effect from the date of Royal Assent of the Autumn Finance Bill 2023, and will apply to accounting periods ending on or after 1 April 2023, or, where relevant, will be deemed to have always had effect; 

• The annual chargeable amounts under the Annual Tax on Enveloped Dwellings regime will be increased in 2024/25 in accordance with September 2023’s CPI figure of 6.7 percent. The Government will implement this change in the usual way through a Treasury Order; 

• There will be no changes to the van benefit charge and the car and van fuel benefit charges in 2024/25 hence these will remain at their 2023/24 levels;  

• Vehicle excise duty (“VED”) rates for cars, vans and motorcycles will increase from 1 April 2024 in line with inflation. To support the haulage sector, the VED rates for HGVs and the HGV levy will both remain unchanged from their 2023/24 rates in 2024/25; 

• Alcohol duties were frozen until 1 August 2024 with the annual increase decision also delayed to the Spring Budget 2024 in order to give businesses time to adapt to the new duty system introduced on 1 August 2023; 

• Duty rates on all tobacco products increased by RPI plus 2 percent from 6pm on 22 November 2023 and are included in the Autumn Finance Bill 2023. To reduce the gap with cigarette duty, the rate on hand-rolling tobacco increased by RPI plus 12 percent;  

• The Gross Gaming Yield bandings for gaming duty are frozen from 1 April 2024 until 31 March 2025;  

• The Government will consult shortly on proposals to bring remote gambling (meaning gambling offered over the internet, telephone, TV, and radio) into a single tax, rather than taxing it through a three-tax structure;  

• The Government will legislate so that, where the substantive decision to proceed with a project to create a new electricity generation station or expand an existing generating station is made on or after 22 November 2023, receipts from that new generating station or additional capacity will not be subject to the Electricity Generator Levy; 

• The Government is legislating in the Autumn Finance Bill 2023 to increase the Plastic Packaging Tax rate in line with CPI, from 1 April 2024, to £217.85 per tonne. To ensure the Plastic Packaging Tax continues to incentivise the use of recycled plastic in packaging, an evaluation plan will also be published by the end of the year in order to gather further evidence to inform the future trajectory of the rate and recycled plastic content threshold;  

• The Government will increase the Aggregates Levy rate in line with RPI, from 1 April 2025 to £2.08 per tonne; and 

• A technical change is being made to section 660 of the Income Tax (Earnings and Pensions) Act 2003 in the Autumn Finance Bill 2023, to ensure that the legislative reference to the Scottish Government’s Carer Allowance Supplement is correct.