On Thursday 5 December the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) published its updated forecast for the UK economy. Chancellor George Osborne responded to that forecast in a statement to the House of Commons later on that day.

In the period since the Budget in March a number of consultation papers and discussion documents have been published by HMRC and some of these proposals are summarised here. Draft legislation relating to many of these areas will be published on 10 December and some of the details in this summary may change as a result.

Our summary also provides a reminder of other key developments which are to take place from April 2014.

The Chancellor's statement

His speech and the subsequent documentation announced tax measures in addition to the normal economic measures.

Our summary concentrates on the tax measures which include:

• the introduction of a transferable tax allowance for some married couples and civil partners
• the introduction of an exemption from employer National Insurance Contributions for employees under 21
• allowing companies to claim tax relief on donations to Community Amateur Sports Clubs
• measures to tackle employment intermediaries disguising employment as self-employment
• anti-avoidance measures which will affect some partnerships in which the partners include individuals and companies
• changes to the CGT Private Residence Relief deemed occupation rules
• the introduction of new CGT rules for non-residents and UK residential property.

Please contact us if you have any questions.