It was announced today that the date for the 2024 Spring Budget will be Wednesday March 6th 2024.
His previous Budget delivery was last March's Budget 2023 where the main challenges were the almost double digit inflation rate and energy cost crisis - with measures for the latter being a major cost for the Chancellor to consider.
There were not many tax giveaways or changes indeed in the March Budget, these were left for last month's 2023 Autumn Statement.
The Chancellor provided a National Insurance giveaway following lower than expected borrowing costs and the halving of the inflation rate leading to the steadying of interest rate rises, with the base rate held at 5.25 percent now since September.
National insurance is now seeing a mid-tax year cut for PAYE employees starting next week - a two percent cut in Class 1 NICs. The self employed will also see a NIC cut but this will be from April 2024 and cut Class 4 NICs by one percent and abolish the Class 2 NIC.
The effects of the cuts will be welcomed but they are not as significant if compared to the unfreezing of tax thresholds and allowances, which are continuing to be frozen until 2028.
We look forward to the Spring Budget as this will likely be a pre-Election Budget and therefore there will be a focus on assuaging voters through fiscal policy decisions.