Key points that has been covered in the budget 2012:

Personal tax
• Basic personal allowance will increase to £8,105 for 2012–13 and to £9,205 for 2013–14.
• Age-related personal allowances will be restricted and phased out from 2013–14.
• Additional rate of income tax will be reduced from 50% to 45% for 2013–14.
• EIS annual investment limit for individuals will be increased to £1 million from 6 April 2012.

Business tax
• Main corporation tax rate will be cut by 2%, to 24% from 1 April 2012; the small profits rate will remain at 20%.
• Main corporation tax rate will be 23% from 1 April 2013, falling to 22% from 1 April 2014.
• Bank levy will be increased from 0.088% to 0.105% from 1 January 2013 to off-set the reduction in the main rate of corporation tax.
• New reliefs will be introduced from 1 April 2013 for the production of culturally British video games, television animation programmes and some other television productions.

Stamp duty land tax
• New 7% rate of stamp duty land tax will apply for residential properties of over £2 million.

VAT
• VAT registration threshold will increase to £77,000 and deregistration threshold to £75,000 from 1 April 2012.

Anti-avoidance
• A range of anti-avoidance measures have been announced.
• Government will consult on a “general anti-abuse rule” with a view to introducing legislation in 2013.