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The Budget, at a glance

Furlough and job support

The furlough scheme has been extended to the end of September, but still on only 80 per cent of pay.

From July, employers will be expected to pay 10 per cent, and from August 20 per cent.

The self-employed support scheme will also continue to September, with two further grants available – the fourth kept at 80 per cent of trading profits, but the fifth reducing to 30 per cent other than for those “with the biggest losses.”

The minimum wage will be increased to £8.91 from April.

The universal credit “uplift” of £20 a week will also go on until September.

Personal tax, VAT and duties

Income-tax thresholds will be increased to £12,570 and £50,270 for the higher rate — but will then be frozen, along with the income-tax rates themselves, until 2026, effectively imposing an increase by stealth.

National insurance rates will also remain unchanged.

The reduced 5 per cent rate of VAT will remain in place until September 30, with an interim rate of 12.5 per cent for the following six months.

The VAT registration threshold will remain at £85,000 until 2024.

Increases on duty applied to spirits, wine, cider and beer are to be frozen for a second year.

An increase in fuel duty is also cancelled.

The nil-rate band of stamp duty for properties worth up to £500,000 will continue until the end of June — there will also be a government guarantee for first-time buyers to access 95 per cent mortgages.

Business support and taxation

Corporation tax will rise to 25 per cent — but not until 2023, and will still be the lowest rate among the G7 capitalist countries. It stood at 28 per cent in 2010 before successive cuts by George Osborne.

A “small profit” rate of corporation tax will remain at 19 per cent for businesses making less than £50,000 profit, with a taper above that level so that only businesses making in excess of £250,000  — only 10 per cent of businesses — will pay the full rate.

For the next two years a “super-deduction” of 130 per cent will be applied to investment — described by Mr Sunak as “the biggest tax cut in modern British history.”

The 100 per cent business-rates holiday will continue up to June, tailing off to a two-thirds discount for the following nine months.

And £5 billion-worth of “restart grants” will be made available in April, with “non-essential retail businesses” entitled to grants of up to £6,000 per premises. Hospitality and leisure businesses will get grants of up to £18,000.

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