The Finance Bill is back and little has changed

Earlier this year the Government announced that a number of the controversial provisions within its Finance Bill would be dropped ahead of June’s snap general election to ensure an easy passage to Royal Assent.

Making Tax Digital and a number of other flagship proposals were subsequently left by the wayside, creating a great deal of uncertainty about their long-term future.

However, these provisions have been reintroduced in the Finance Bill 2017-19, which was presented to MPs in September.

They include:

• changes to the tax regime for non-domiciled individuals, including the requirement that they should have lived here for 15, instead of 17, of the last 20 years to claim UK resident status;
• a cut in the Money Purchase Annual Allowance from £10,000 to £4,000 for people who have accessed their pensions flexibly;
• the introduction of a £500 financial advice allowance, enabling savers to access £500 tax-free from their pension pots to pay for regulated financial advice; and
• from April 2018, a reduction in the tax-free Dividend Allowance from £5,000 to £2,000.

The situation became more complex soon after the draft Finance Bill was released, with the publication of a consultation on draft legislation to be included in the next Finance Bill – the Finance (No.2) Bill 2017-19 – the final contents of which will be announced at the Autumn Budget on 22 November.

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