The Spring Statement (often referred to as the Spring Budget or Spring Forecast) will take place on 26 March 2025. But what might Rachel Reeves announce following all the significant changes in the Autumn Budget 2024?

Is the Spring Statement another major Budget or announcement?

For the government to offer businesses and families more certainty and stability, the Chancellor remains committed to only one major fiscal event a year and has said that there will be no further tax rises in the Spring Statement. However, Sir Keir Starmer later tried to qualify this comment on the Spring Statement, reopening the door for the Chancellor to add further tax rises to the statement.

The Treasury has confirmed that the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) has been commissioned to provide an updated economic and fiscal forecast alongside the Spring Statement.

However, slow economic growth could put the Chancellor under pressure to make more announcements to encourage further economic growth in the coming year.

After the £40bn of tax rises announced in the Autumn Budget 2024, more major announcements could be difficult for businesses and their owners to swallow, plan for, and prepare for.

However, the Spring Statement provides Rachel Reeves with another opportunity to tweak further taxes or some of the announcements made in the controversial Autumn Budget, based on public feedback or further consultations.

What might be announced at the Spring Budget 2025?

The Chancellor has always emphasised growth as the government’s number one mission, so we fully expect a large proportion of the Chancellor’s statement to focus on the economy and economic growth rather than many changes to taxes.

NIC

With the Spring Statement on 26 March 2025 and 11 days before the changes to Employers’ NIC, which are due to happen on 6 April, the Chancellor may offer some relief to employers by increasing the Employment Allowance again to raise the threshold before employers’ NIC is payable.

There may also be announcements about NIC relief for charities, as they face significant financial pressure due to the NIC changes.

IHT

The changes announced to IHT have caused much backlash and protests, especially among those in the agricultural sector. This may mean that the Chancellor rethinks this radical announcement from the Autumn Budget and could revise the proposed £1m cap on business and agriculture property relief. A technical consultation on agricultural and business relief was promised by early 2025. Still, as of the time of writing, there has been no clear understanding of the results of that consultation, so these may come out in the Spring Statement.

Another huge area of controversy that affects many business owners and their families was the announcement of the changes to bring pensions into an individual’s estate from 6 April 2027. Will we see any movement on that? Given that every government wants to encourage people to save for their retirement, this measure has always been counterintuitive.

Click here for our tips on reducing your IHT bill.

Capital Gains Tax (CGT)

The Autumn Budget announced a significant increase to the lower rate of CGT from 10% to 18% and a higher rate increase from 20% to 24% for disposals made on or after 30 October 2024.

Fiscal drag

Fiscal drag (where tax thresholds and allowances remain frozen) is pushing more and more people into higher rates of tax. Subsequent governments have failed to tackle this, and it seems highly unlikely that this will change under the Labour government.

Click here for our tips on saving Capital Gains Tax.

Summary

While the Spring Statement is likely to contain no major changes as the Chancellor is committed to only one major fiscal event per year, the government has been left free to tweak tax rates and previous Autumn Budget announcements to take into account economic conditions and fiscal forecasts.

We’ll keep you informed of further developments and will be sharing our Spring Statement summary to notify you of any further developments.

Contact us if you have any questions about this and changes announced in the Autumn Statement and tax changes to take place in April 2025.