Looking at the impact of the Budget on advice professionals, while we have quite a lot of changes, we also have quite a lot of lead in time before many of these changes come into effect.

This creates lots of nice opportunities for the planners and advice teams among you. Salary sacrifice is one of the headline announcements that might bite for our world, but there’s three years to plan for it and/or for employees to fill their boots.

And with the changes to pensions and IHT coming down the track, there are even more of those planning opportunities for you to do what you do best.

As usual, those with an adviser will probably be fine. But for those without, there is more complexity to navigate.

With all those changes in mind, we’ve put together a timeline for implementation, from what we learned yesterday to what we knew already.

From 2026

• EIS and VCTs – A measure to increase the investment and gross asset limits in the EIS and VCT scheme, and a reduction to VCT income tax relief from 30% to 20%. This will take effect from 6 April 2026.
• State Pension and Pension Credit uprating for 2026/27 – The basic and new State Pension will be increased by 4.8% from April 2026, in line with earnings growth. This means over 12 million pensioners will gain up to £575 each in 2026/27. The Pension Credit Standard Minimum Guarantee will also be uprated by 4.8% from April 2026.
• Agricultural Property Relief and Business Property Relief – Any unused allowance for the 100% rate of relief to be transferable between spouses and civil partners from 6 April 2026.
• Non-resident dividend tax credit – The government will abolish the dividend tax credit for non-UK residents with UK income, aligning their treatment with UK residents. This will be legislated for in Finance Bill 2025/26 and take effect from 6 April 2026.
• Changes to tax on dividend income – The government is changing the rates of income tax on dividends. From 2026/27, the ordinary rate will be increased by 2 percentage points to 10.75% and the upper rate will be increased by 2 percentage points to 35.75%. The additional rate will remain unchanged at 39.35%. This will be legislated for in Finance Bill 2025-26 and take effect from 6 April 2026.
• Capital Gains Tax: The CGT relief on qualifying disposals to employee ownership trusts will reduce from 100% to 50% from 26 November 2026.

From 2027

• Changes to tax on property income – The government will create separate tax rates for property income. From 2027/28, the property basic rate will be 22%, the property higher rate will be 42%, and the property additional rate will be 47%. These rates will apply across England, Wales and Northern Ireland. This will be legislated for in the Finance Bill 2025/26 and take effect from 6 April 2027.
• Changes to tax on savings income – The government is changing the rates of income tax that apply to savings income. From 2027/28, the savings basic rate will be increased by 2 percentage points to 22%, the savings higher rate will be increased by 2 percentage points to 42% and the savings additional rate will be increased by 2 percentage points to 47%. As above, this will be legislated for in the Finance Bill 2025/26 and take effecctfrom 6 April 2027.
• ISA changes – From 6 April 2027 the annual ISA cash limit will be set at £12,000, within the overall annual ISA limit of £20,000. Annual subscription limits will remain at £20,000 for ISAs, £4,000 for Lifetime ISAs and £9,000 for Junior ISAs and Child Trust Funds until 5 April 2031. Savers over the age of 65 will continue to be able to save up to £20,000 in a cash ISA each year.
• Inheritance Tax treatment of unused pension funds and death benefits – Personal representatives will be able to direct pension scheme administrators to withhold 50% of taxable benefits for up to 15 months and pay Inheritance Tax due in certain circumstances. Personal representatives will be discharged from a liability for payment of Inheritance Tax on pensions discovered after they have received clearance from HMRC. This will take effect from 6 April 2027.

From 2028

• High Value Council Tax Surcharge – The government will introduce the High Value Council Tax Surcharge, the so-called ‘mansion tax’. This is a new charge on owners of residential property in England worth £2m or more, starting in the 2028/29 tax year.

From 2029

• Salary sacrifice for pension contributions – The government will charge employer and employee NICs on pension contributions above £2,000 a year made via salary sacrifice. These changes will be legislated for “in due course”. This will take effect from 6 April 2029.

From 2028 to 2031

• Income tax Personal Allowance and higher rate thresholds – The government is freezing the income tax Personal Allowance at £12,570 and higher rate threshold at £50,270 from April 2028 to April 2031. The additional rate threshold remains at £125,140 from April 2028 to April 2031.
• Inheritance tax thresholds – The inheritance tax nil-rate bands are already set at current levels until April 2030 and will stay fixed at these levels for a further year until April 2031.

Picture source: HM Treasury