Autumn Budget 2025 for businesses

In this article we look at the key tax changes for businesses announced by Chancellor Rachel Reeves in the 2025 Autumn Budget.

After businesses bore the brunt of last year’s tax increases, and with the government reaffirming its commitment to the corporate tax roadmap, this Budget delivered targeted changes rather than sweeping reform. Changes to capital allowances include a new 40% first-year allowance for qualifying capital expenditure and a reduction in the main writing down allowance rate from 18% to 14%. There are also changes to transfer pricing rules, and growth incentives have been strengthened through expanded investment schemes, such as widening the Enterprise Management Incentive (EMI) scheme and increasing the amounts that can be raised through Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS) and Venture Capital Trust (VCT) investments.

Very little was speculated for businesses ahead of the Budget, and some of what was rumoured didn’t happen. Plans to apply employer NICs to LLP members, widely trailed earlier in the Autumn, were stepped back from before the Budget and didn’t appear in the final announcements. Likewise, suggestions of a change to the VAT registration threshold didn’t come through. One surprise was the reduction of capital gains tax (CGT) relief on qualifying disposals to employee ownership trusts from 100% to 50%, effective immediately.

You can view the detail behind each of the announcements below: