Autumn Budget 2026: What UK Businesses Need to Know

The Autumn Budget 2026 brought in changes affecting staff costs, employee benefits, business travel, investment, VAT, research and development (R&D), property, and selling or passing on a company.

This is a plain-English guide to what has changed and what it means for your business. Each section starts with “If you…”, so you can skip straight to the parts that apply to you. There is a checklist at the end to help you see whether you should speak to us.

Key figures at a glance

How to read this table: a dash (—) means the figure was not newly confirmed for that year in this Budget. It does not mean the allowance or threshold is nil (zero).

*These thresholds can be lower if your company is connected to other companies (known as “associated companies”).

†Exact start dates: the main-rate first-year allowance rises to 50% for qualifying spending incurred from 1 January 2027 (part-way through 2026/27). The main-rate writing-down allowance falls to 12% for chargeable periods beginning on or after 1 April 2027 for Corporation Tax, or 6 April 2027 for Income Tax. See “If you are planning to buy equipment or machinery” below for more detail.

Your staff and employee benefits

If you employ staff on or near the minimum wage

From 1 April 2027, the minimum hourly rates will rise as follows:

• Aged 21 and over (National Living Wage): £12.71 to £13.21
• Aged 18 to 20: £10.85 to £11.27
• Under 18: £8.00 to £8.31
• Apprentices: £8.00 to £8.31

What this means for you: if you pay staff at or near these rates, your wage bill will go up. Your costs for other staff could also rise if you keep pay gaps between junior and more experienced employees.

What to do: build the new rates into your staffing and cash-flow plans before April 2027.

If you offer, or plan to offer, share options to staff

From 6 April 2027, the government is making tax-friendly employee share schemes more flexible:

• Under a Company Share Option Plan (CSOP), each employee can hold options worth up to £120,000, and options can be used for up to 15 years.
• CSOP options and Enterprise Management Incentive (EMI) options will no longer count towards each other’s limits.
• After certain events that stop an EMI scheme from qualifying, employees will have 180 days to use their options.
• For EMI options given on or after 6 April 2027, you won’t need to tell HMRC separately. Instead, this will be done through your end-of-year return.

What this means for you: if you use, or are thinking of using, share options to attract and keep staff, you will have more flexibility and less paperwork. If you don’t use share options, you don’t need to do anything.

If you sponsor workers from overseas

From 28 October 2026, if you pay a required Certificate of Sponsorship fee or Immigration Skills Charge to sponsor a Skilled Worker, the employee won’t pay Income Tax on it.

What this means for you: you have more certainty over how these compulsory costs are taxed.

If staff use their own vehicles for work

From 6 April 2027, the approved mileage rate for business mileage over 10,000 miles in a tax year will rise from 25p to 35p per mile. The same increase will apply to the simplified mileage rate for self-employed people.

What to do: check that your expenses policy and payroll settings use the new rate from April 2027.

If you provide company cars or vans

From 6 April 2027, the following figures will apply:

• Car fuel benefit multiplier: £30,200
• Van fuel benefit charge: £825
• Van benefit charge: £4,310

Looking further ahead, for the 2030/31 tax year, Company Car Tax percentages will rise by one percentage point for zero-emission vehicles and for all other vehicle bands, with a maximum rate of 40% applying to the other bands.

What to do: if you provide vehicles or fuel, include these figures in your longer-term cost forecasts and make sure your employees understand how they will be taxed.

If you provide benefits in kind

Benefits in kind are perks you give employees on top of their pay. “Mandatory payrolling” is being introduced in stages. This means that benefits will generally need to be reported and taxed through payroll, using Real Time Information (RTI), on the following timetable:

• From 6 April 2027: company cars and vans, car and van fuel, and medical benefits.
• From 6 April 2028: most other benefits.
• Not included for now: employment-related loans and accommodation provided by the employer.

What to do: review your benefits records and payroll software before the relevant start date.

Your company’s tax

If your company pays Corporation Tax

There are no changes to Corporation Tax rates or thresholds:

• The main rate stays at 25%.
• The small profits rate stays at 19%.
• The small profits threshold stays at £50,000 and the main rate threshold stays at £250,000.
• Companies with profits between £50,000 and £250,000 can still claim marginal relief (a partial reduction in the rate).

Please note: these thresholds can be lower if your company has associated companies, so the rate you actually pay depends on your circumstances.

If you are planning to buy equipment or machinery

You can still get generous tax relief when buying qualifying equipment and machinery:

• The Annual Investment Allowance stays at £1 million.
• Companies can still claim 100% full expensing.

For many smaller businesses, this means the full cost can still be deducted from taxable profits straight away.

Two other allowances are changing. These mostly matter if the reliefs above aren’t available to you or you have already used them up:

• The main-rate first-year allowance (the percentage of the cost you can deduct in the year you buy) rises from 40% to 50% for qualifying spending incurred from 1 January 2027.
• The main-rate writing-down allowance (the percentage of the remaining cost you can deduct each year) falls from 14% to 12% for chargeable periods beginning on or after 1 April 2027 for Corporation Tax, and on or after 6 April 2027 for Income Tax. If your accounting period spans the change, a hybrid (blended) rate can apply.

What to do: if you are planning a large purchase, speak to us first. The timing and type of spending can affect when you get the relief.

If your company claims R&D tax relief

For R&D claims made on or after 1 April 2027, you will no longer need to send a separate Claim Notification Form. The Additional Information Form will also be simplified from autumn 2027.

What to do: the rules on what counts as R&D are not changing, so keep clear records of the work you do and what it costs.

Selling, passing on or investing in a business

If you are thinking of selling your business

Business Asset Disposal Relief reduces the Capital Gains Tax you pay when you sell a qualifying business. From 6 April 2027, the lifetime limit for this relief will fall from £1 million to £500,000.

Special rules apply to some sales agreed before 6 April 2027 that haven’t yet completed, and to certain share reorganisations and exchanges.

What this means for you: this doesn’t affect your company’s Corporation Tax, but you could personally pay more Capital Gains Tax when you sell.

What to do: if you are thinking of selling, restructuring or passing on your business, please speak to us first.

If you are a founder or early investor

From 6 April 2027, a new Founders’ Relief will offer a lower Capital Gains Tax rate to qualifying founders and early investors who have made a significant long-term contribution to fast-growing, innovative UK companies.

The details are still being consulted on and will be set out in the Finance Bill, so don’t build this relief into your plans yet.

What to do: if you think it might apply to you, talk to us before making any decisions about your shares.

If you plan to give away qualifying business shares or securities

Capital Gains Tax gift holdover relief lets you put off paying Capital Gains Tax when you give away certain business assets. A formula restricts this relief on disposals of qualifying shares or securities.

From 6 April 2027, this formula will be modernised. The revised formula will take account of:

• assets within the intangible fixed assets regime (the tax rules for company assets such as goodwill and intellectual property); and
• assets qualifying for the substantial shareholding exemption (a relief that can apply when a company sells a substantial shareholding in another company).

What to do: if you are planning a gift, succession or family transfer involving shares or securities, get advice before completing it.

If you use venture capital schemes

Technical changes are being made to the rules for the Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme (SEIS), the Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS) and Venture Capital Trusts (VCTs). These schemes offer tax relief to encourage investment in smaller companies.

• Shares issued on or after 6 April 2026: the change to the VCT relief-withdrawal rules (the rules on when relief can be taken back) will apply to relevant disposals of these shares.
• From 6 April 2027: the remaining changes will take effect.

What to do: if you are raising investment or claiming relief under one of these schemes, check the conditions before issuing or disposing of shares.

VAT and invoicing

If you are VAT registered or close to the threshold

There are no changes to the VAT rate or thresholds:

• The standard VAT rate stays at 20%.
• The registration threshold stays at £90,000.
• The deregistration threshold stays at £88,000.

What to do: if your sales are getting close to £90,000, keep a close eye on them, as there is no extra headroom.

If you buy services from overseas and aren’t VAT registered

From April 2027, if your business is not VAT registered, overseas suppliers will have to charge you UK VAT on services, rather than you dealing with it yourself under the “reverse charge”. The reverse charge will only apply to VAT-registered businesses.

What this means for you: this could increase your costs for things like software, consultancy, marketing or digital services from abroad.

What to do: if you buy a lot of these services and aren’t VAT registered, review how this could affect you.

If you sell through an online marketplace

From October 2027, online marketplaces will become responsible for collecting VAT on certain sales made by UK businesses. The rules will cover:

• UK VAT-registered sellers; and
• other UK businesses whose annual sales on a platform meet the £90,000 threshold.

Personal sales, second-hand goods and business-to-business transactions will be excluded.

What to do: if you sell through a platform, make sure your business status, VAT details and sales records are accurate.

If you send or receive VAT invoices

From 1 April 2029, VAT invoices will need to be issued and received electronically in a structured digital format. This means more than simply emailing a PDF invoice. The government has published a roadmap and will give more guidance before then.

What to do: there is nothing to change yet, so avoid making unnecessary software changes and look out for further updates.

If you pay VAT or PAYE

From April 2029, businesses will generally need to have a Direct Debit instruction in place for VAT and PAYE return liabilities (the amounts due on those returns), subject to defined exceptions. You will still be able to pay by another method before a specified cut-off date, but HMRC will use the Direct Debit to collect any unpaid balance.

What to do: there is nothing to change yet, but bear this in mind when planning any changes to your finance systems.

Other changes to be aware of

If you have business premises

In England, the Small Business Rate Relief threshold is rising. This is expected to take a further 70,000 retail, hospitality and leisure businesses out of business rates altogether. This is on top of the changes already made in April 2026, including the 2026 revaluation and new multipliers (the figures used to calculate rates bills).

What to do: what you pay depends on your premises’ rateable value, how the premises are used and the reliefs available. Check your bill and make sure any relief you are entitled to has been applied.

If fuel costs matter to your business

The temporary 5p per litre cut in the main fuel duty rates will continue until 30 June 2027. From 1 July 2027, the rates are due to return to their pre-cut level and then rise in line with inflation, as measured by the Retail Prices Index (RPI).

What to do: allow for this in your vehicle, delivery and travel budgets for the second half of 2027.

If you have small amounts of trading income

From 6 April 2027, the trading allowance and the Self Assessment reporting threshold for trading income will rise from £1,000 to £3,000. This mainly affects individuals and sole traders, rather than limited companies.

What to do: if your gross trading income (before expenses) is above the new threshold, or you need to claim expenses or report other income, check whether you still need to file a tax return.

If your company owns high-value residential property

Annual Tax on Enveloped Dwellings (ATED) charges will rise by 3.5% from 1 April 2027. ATED can apply where a company, or certain other owners that are not individuals (known as “non-natural persons”), owns UK residential property valued above the relevant threshold.

What to do: if your company holds residential property, check whether you need to file a return, make a payment or claim a relief.

If you borrow money from your company

A proposed extra reporting requirement for directors’ loan accounts is not going ahead. However, the existing rules still apply. Borrowing from your company, or leaving a loan unpaid, can still lead to Corporation Tax, benefit-in-kind and other tax charges, depending on your circumstances.

If your company is required to provide a security to HMRC

For qualifying offences committed on or after 1 April 2027, following a conviction for breaching HMRC securities legislation, a court will be able to consider disqualifying someone from acting as a company director for up to five years.

What to do: most compliant companies will not need to take any action. However, directors should not ignore a requirement to provide a tax security, or any professional advice about it.

What should you do now?

Most businesses don’t need to act straight away. However, it is worth talking to us if you:

Staff and benefits

• employ staff at or near the minimum wage
• use, or are considering, an employee share scheme
• sponsor workers from overseas
• reimburse employees for business mileage
• provide benefits in kind, company cars or vans

Your company

• are planning a large purchase of equipment or machinery
• make, or are considering, an R&D claim
• regularly take money from your company through a director’s loan account

Selling, passing on or investing

• are thinking of selling, restructuring or passing on your company
• are a founder or early investor in a fast-growing company
• plan to give away qualifying business shares or securities
• use a venture capital scheme

VAT

• are close to the £90,000 VAT registration threshold
• aren’t VAT registered and buy significant services from overseas
• sell through an online marketplace

Other

• have commercial premises and aren’t sure you are getting the right business rates relief
• have significant fuel, delivery or travel costs
• own high-value residential property through a company

Digital invoicing and mandatory Direct Debit payments for VAT and PAYE are further off, and we will share more guidance as the details become clear.

The Budget will affect every business differently, depending on its size, profits, staff, activities and plans. If you are unsure how any of this affects you, get in touch with the EOACC team.

Disclaimer

This article is a general overview of the Autumn Budget 2026 announcements for businesses and company owners. Some measures start on different dates, and some still need to become law or are subject to consultation or further guidance, so they may change. How the rules apply depends on your own and your company’s circumstances, so please speak to us before taking any action. This article is for general information only and must not be relied on as tax or financial advice. Acting on any of the information is entirely at your own risk.