Winners
The government will give savers £50 for every £200 they raise for a deposit on their first home, up to a maximum government payment of £3,000. It is available for homes worth up to £250,000, or £450,000 in London, and you have to live there.
Savers currently pay 20% tax on their interest, but not from 2016. Someone with savings of £20,000 earning 2% interest will save £80 in tax from next year. Basic rate taxpayers will be able to earn interest up to £1,000 tax-free. Higher rate taxpayers get the break on the first £500.
Pubs and pub-goers will be toasting the chancellor: beer duty was cut by a penny per pint, while taxes on cider and whisky will drop 2%.
Shares in oil companies risen slightly with news of £1.3bn of support for North Sea production. Both BP and Royal Dutch Shell added 2.4%.
Losers
Banks
The bank levy will increase to 0.21%, raising £900m, while all new bank measures will raise £5.3bn.
The new Racing Right is designed to fund horseracing by getting the bookmakers to pay for the right to offer bets on the sport. Expect bookmaking firms to threaten – and maybe bring – legal challenges. They think they pay enough already.
Savers with large pension pots
The lifetime allowance will be reduced from £1.25m to £1m, meaning any member of a defined benefit scheme with a built-up pension of £50,000 on retirement will be hit by the penalty tax charge. Nigel Roth, of consultants Mercer, said: “This will apply to many public sector workers”.
Tax dodgers
Every chancellor targets tax dodgers and among the numerous anti-avoidance measures, the most notable is the diverted profits tax, better known as the “Google tax”.
