- The chancellor should meet his fiscal rules with enough headroom for giveaways in next week’s Budget
- Changes to national insurance and inheritance tax are under the spotlight as Hunt promises “smart tax cuts”
- But lower growth and lower inflation will limit the tax take – meaning the chancellor might save big measures until later in the year
Tomorrow will see Chancellor Jeremy Hunt announce the Spring Budget. He finds himself with some scope for giveaways, but not much: a rise in gilt yields and a challenging economic outlook mean that ‘headroom’ for handouts looks a lot smaller than at the end of last year.
As a result, there is speculation that the most ambitious (and expensive) measures will be saved until an Autumn Statement or election manifesto later in the year. With national insurance and inheritance tax under the spotlight, here is what to expect from the announcement: