The Autumn Statement

In advance of today's autumn statement, there has been a lot of speculation in the press about the measures that the chancellor George Osborne might use in an attempt to meet his target for reducing the deficit without damaging the economy.

Last month, the Institute of Fiscal Studies suggested Osborne may have to announce more spending cuts or tax increases or risk failing to achieve his target of reducing the level of debt by 2015/16. At the weekend, George Osborne admitted that it is taking longer to tackle the problems with Government finances than expected. 

Here are some of the measures that Osborne has been tipped to include in the Autumn Statement.

Reduction of higher-rate tax relief

It has been widely suggested that Osborne is planning to reduce the annual allowance for tax relief on pension contributions from the current limit of £50,000 to either £40,000 or £30,000.

Figures suggest a reduction to £40,000 could save the Treasury somewhere in the region of £600m, while a reduction to £30,000 could save up to £2bn.

Removal of higher-rate tax relief

Another option to reduce the annual bill for tax relief is to scrap higher-rate tax relief completely, meaning 40 and 50 per cent tax payers would receive only 20 per cent tax relief on their pension contributions. This could raise as much as £7bn for the Treasury but most believe a move of this kind is unlikely.

Reduction of the lifetime allowance

The final option to curb pension tax relief would be to reduce the lifetime allowance for pensions from the current £1.5m to £1m. This could raise up to £1.5bn a year.

Removing the ‘carry-forward’ allowance

The current ‘carry-forward’ allowance allows high-earners who do not use the maximum £50,000 allowance each year to carry the remainder over to the following year for up to a maximum of three years. However, this generous rule could be scrapped to coincide with the reduction in higher-rate tax relief.

Introduction of a mansion tax

Osborne previously ruled out introducing a 'mansion tax' at the Conservative party conference this year and last month Downing Street ruled out any change to council tax bands.

From March this year, all properties worth £2m or more bought by companies were liable to stamp duty at 15 per cent.

In addition, details are expected on a proposed annual charge of between £15,000 and £140,000 and to introduce capital gains tax on the sale of residential properties owned by companies.

Income Tax and personal allowance

There is a possibility that the top rate tax of those earning £150,000 or more could see a further reduction from 45p to 40p.

Cash basis for smaller businesses

The chancellor is expected to announce changes to income tax rules to allow small businesses to change the way they pay corporation tax to a simplified cash basis. The measure was proposed by the Office of Tax Simplification and should apply to businesses with turnovers of up to the VAT threshold of £77,000.

Creation of ‘Employee-owner’ status

At the Conservatives annual conference in September, Osborne announced plans to allow ‘employee-owners’ to receive shares of between £2,000 and £50,000 in the businesses they work for in exchange for waiving their right to claim unfair dismissal.

Welfare cuts

At the Conservative party conference this year, Osborne announced that work and pensions secretary Iain Duncan Smith had agreed to £10bn in welfare cuts by 2016/2017. To hit that figure would mean the Treasury needs to find £6.6bn in 2015/2016, therefore it is very likely that the chancellor will announce welfare cuts in his statement.