The Chancellor George Osborne delivers his next Budget today and although there has already been a number of strategic previews many pundits are predicting few fireworks in the annual statement.
The Chancellor has already announced further support for people to realise their home owning aspirations and support construction of 120,000 new homes, including a new Garden City at Ebbsfleet.
Financial experts believe this year's Budget could be relatively quiet because the chancellor may wish to save his ammunition for next year's Budget, just before the next general election scheduled for May 2015.
We already know about some changes scheduled for the 2014-15 tax year, because they have been announced already, or are being consulted on before the detail is settled.
For example, the personal income tax allowance is going up in April from £9,440 to £10,000 and is also scheduled to rise by the increase in the Consumer Prices Index (CPI) from 2015-16 onwards. In addition, the ceiling for paying the 20% basic rate of income tax will fall again (as it has done for the past few years) - from £32,010 of taxable income to £31,865.
But taken together, the overall threshold for paying the 40% higher tax rate - the combined effect of the annual allowance and the basic rate band - actually increases by 1% this April, from £41,450 of income (£9,440 plus £32,010) to £41,865 (£10,000 plus £31,865). Back in the 2012 Autumn Statement, the chancellor said this higher-rate threshold would also rise by 1% in 2015-16.
The rates and thresholds for National insurance contributions (NIC) in the coming financial year have already been announced. The primary threshold for employees will rise from £7,755 to £7,956 while the upper earnings limit goes up from £41,450 to £41,865.
A new NIC employment allowance of £2,000 begins in April. This will remove the first £2,000 from the NI bill for every business and charity.
The corporation tax rate is being cut from 23% to 21% and will go down again to 20% in April next year. This applies to companies whose profits are more than £1.5m.
Business rates will be cut next month, and a relief for small companies has been extended to April 2015.
The Budget should start a formal consultation on the government's plan (announced in the 2013 Autumn Statement) to impose capital gains tax (CGT) on non-UK residents who own and sell a home in the UK. This tax is scheduled to start in April 2015 and could affect hundreds of thousands of UK citizens who have moved abroad but still own a home in the UK.
Also, from 2014 the ability of a property owner to still avoid paying CGT when selling their main home, even if they stopped living in it up to three years ago, will be restricted. From this April, that exemption period from CGT will be cut in half, to just 18 months.
