The Chantrey Vellacott DFK team has examined the Chancellor's Budget speech in detail and we are pleased to bring you our full coverage of Budget 2012.
 
We've updated our table of tax rates and you can view our detailed coverage via the menu on the left. 
 
The Budget showed, in general, a very modest reduction in taxation and an equally modest reduction in spending.
 
The big picture
In overall terms, the acceleration in the rise of the personal allowance is to be paid for by an increase in the bank levy, the freezing of age-related allowances and attacks on matters the Chancellor sees as tax avoidance – stopping two or three strategies that some financial companies were pursuing and heavily taxing those buying homes through offshore companies.
 
Growth forecast
As usual, detailed economic estimates have been prepared and examined by the Office of Budget Responsibility. They show little change on the position forecast at the time of the Autumn Statement. Growth is forecast for the UK this year at some 0.8% - very little, but perhaps rather more than many Eurozone countries will manage this year; indeed the International Monetary Fund expect the Eurozone as a whole to experience contraction in 2012.
 
The level of the UK deficit is falling from its peak and forecast at 5.8% for the current year or some £126bn. This is forecast to fall to not more than £20bn in 2016/17.
 
However, what does the Finance Bill hold?
In terms of the detailed provisions included in the statement, most announcements appear to have been accurately reported in the press in the weeks preceding. But there is a lot of detail, and probably a lot more in the Finance Bill which we eagerly anticipate at the end of this month.