Finance Bill 2016 receives Royal Assent

Newsletter issue - October 2016.

The Finance Bill 2016 finally received Royal Assent on 15 September, enacting proposals announced in the 2016 Budget, Autumn Statement 2015 and Summer Budget 2015. Amongst other things, Finance Act 2016 includes provisions relating to income tax rates and allowances; restrictions on tax reliefs for travel and subsistence expenses (in effect since April 2016), the reduction of the lifetime allowance on pension contributions from £1.25m to £1m (again, effective from 6 April 2016); and the reduction in the main rate of corporation tax to 17% for financial year 2020.

The Act is based on George Osbourne's final Budget. The annual Finance Bill usually receives Royal Assent in early to mid-July. This year's extensive delay has been largely blamed on the Brexit referendum followed by the summer parliamentary recess.

Finance Act 2016 can be found online http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2016/24/contents/enacted/data.htm.