Not a great deal of good news in the Chancellor’s pre-budget report on Wednesday.
We are all to pay an extra 0.5% in NI contributions, as are our employers from April 2011, although for lower earners the news is not so bad, as the point at which we start paying NI is also to rise.
There will be no increase in the threshold of the 40% tax rate in 2012-13.
On the brighter side, the Chancellor is extending the temporary increase in the threshold for empty property rate relief. Also, the Government
is deferring, for an extra year, the planned increase in the Small Companies’ Rate of
corporation tax. The rate will remain at 21 per cent during 2010-11.

The temporary extension of trading loss carry-back from one to three years, for losses up to £50,000 applies until 23 November 2010 for companies. It allows an estimated 90 per cent of eligible businesses to claim full relief on their losses and is providing an average repayment worth more than £4,000.

Important for the development of electric vehicles, the Chancellor announced an exemption for electric cars from company car tax from 2010 and has introduced a 100 per cent first-year allowance for electric vans.

No scrappage news for truck operators, however.