Behind the main Budget announcements, a few other matters of rural interest can be found as follows:
Treatment of double cab pick-up vehicles
Following a Court of Appeal judgement, the government will treat double cab pick-up vehicles (DCPUs), with a payload of one tonne or more, as cars for certain tax purposes. From 1 April 2025, for Corporation Tax, and 6 April 2025, for Income Tax, DCPUs will be treated as cars for the purposes of capital allowances, benefits in kind, and some deductions from business profits. The existing capital allowances treatment will apply to those who purchase DCPUs before April 2025. Transitional benefit in kind arrangements will apply for employers that have purchased, leased, or ordered a DCPU before 6 April 2025. They will be able to use the previous treatment, until the earlier of disposal, lease expiry, or 5 April 2029.
DEFRA Budget (from the DEFRA blog)
“The Budget, announced annually, provides the economic outlook and sets out tax and spending plans for the coming year, based on the Spending Review’s framework. Together, they ensure spending aligns with the government’s goals and supports economic stability.
As outlined in the Chancellor’s announcement, we have secured a budget of £2.4 billion for the next financial year.”
Delinked payments
Further reductions are being made to delinked payments for next year. This is to ensure that funding is targeted where it can have the greatest impact.
The fastest subsidy reductions will apply to those who historically received the largest payments. For example, the top 4% of recipients — who received over £100,000 in subsidies in 2020 — will receive no more than £8,000 by 2025. In contrast, most farmers, who began with less than £10,000 in payments, will see a gradual reduction in their delinked payments but will continue to have access to funding through SFI and other schemes.
For 2025, we plan to apply a 76% reduction to the first £30,000 of a payment, while making no payments for any portion of a payment above £30,000.
For example, a payment of £40,000 would have a 76% reduction applied to the first £30,000 of the payment (a reduction of £22,800). A 100% reduction would be applied to the next £10,000 (a reduction of £10,000). The payment would be reduced by £32,800 to £7,200.
*The views expressed are the author’s and not ICAEW’s
