John Healey has delivered his first Budget, and the Autumn Budget 2026 turned out to be less of a bombshell and more of a mixed bag. If you drive for work or run a small side business, there's some genuinely good news. If you rent out property or have a healthy pile of savings, less so. Here's what actually changed, who it affects, and when.
Autumn Budget 2026: the headlines in 30 seconds
- Trading allowance triples from £1,000 to £3,000 from April 2027
- Mileage rates go up for good: 55p a mile locked in for the first 10,000 business miles, and 35p (up from 25p) after that from April 2027
- Landlords and savers pay more: tax on rental profits and savings interest rises by a further 2 percentage points from April 2027, on top of last year's rise
- Dividends and wages are left alone
- Cash ISA allowance stays at £20,000 (the planned cut to £12,000 is scrapped)
- Self Assessment payments will move to smaller, more regular instalments from 2029
- Self-employed dads and partners get paid parental leave from April 2029
- Selling a business? Business Asset Disposal Relief's lifetime limit halves to £500,000, but a new Founders' Relief arrives
- Minimum wage rises 3.9% from April 2027
Good news first: the trading allowance triples to £3,000
Right now, the first £1,000 of trading income you earn each year is tax free, and if your total takings stay under that, you don't even need to tell HMRC. That £1,000 hasn't moved since 2017, which is why so many people selling on Vinted, tutoring on Sunday afternoons or doing the odd weekend DJ gig have found themselves accidentally on HMRC's radar.
From April 2027, that allowance rises to £3,000. For someone running a small side business, that's potentially £2,000 more you can earn before any tax is due, and possibly no Self Assessment return at all.
Two things worth knowing:
- It's an either/or. Under the current rules, you either take the allowance or claim your actual expenses, not both. If your costs are higher than the allowance (a photographer with expensive kit, say), claiming expenses will still work out better.
- The fine print is still to come. The Chancellor described it as an allowance for income from a new venture, so we're waiting to see whether it applies to everyone with trading income or is aimed at people just starting out. We'll update this once the detail is published.
Nothing was announced on the separate £1,000 property allowance, so that stays as it is for now.
Driving for work? Your mileage claim just got bigger
Earlier this year, the tax-free mileage rate for the first 10,000 business miles went up from 45p to 55p, but only for the 2026/27 tax year. That increase is now permanent. And from April 2027, the rate for every business mile above 10,000 goes up from 25p to 35p.
These rates matter whether you're an employee being reimbursed or self-employed and claiming simplified motoring expenses. Take an electrician covering 15,000 business miles a year: the extra 10p on those last 5,000 miles adds £500 to their mileage claim. The Treasury reckons a driver doing 15,000 business miles saves up to £300 a year in tax compared with the old rates.
The new 35p rate applies from April 2027, so there's nothing to change on this year's claims. Either way, the real takeaway is simple: if you're not keeping a proper mileage log, you're leaving money on the table.
Landlords: rental income tax goes up (again)
Last year's Budget already confirmed that, from 6 April 2027, rental profits would be taxed at their own rates of 22%, 42% and 47%, two points above the rates on wages. Today, Healey added a further two percentage points from the same date.
If that's applied across every band, landlords who own property in their own name would pay 24%, 44% and 49% on rental profits from April 2027. The exact rates are still to be confirmed in the Budget documents, but that's the direction of travel.
What does that look like in real money? A basic rate landlord with £10,000 of rental profit currently pays £2,000 in tax. At 24%, that becomes £2,400. A higher rate landlord with the same profit goes from £4,000 to £4,400.
This applies to individual landlords, not property held in a limited company. Before anyone starts moving properties into a company off the back of today's news, that move can trigger Stamp Duty and Capital Gains Tax, so it needs proper numbers, not a Budget-day reaction.
And don't forget Making Tax Digital: if your combined property and self-employment income was over £30,000, quarterly digital reporting starts for you in April 2027 too.
Savers: more tax on interest, but your ISA is safe
The same extra 2 percentage points applies to savings interest from April 2027. Most people won't notice, because the Personal Savings Allowance still covers the first £1,000 of interest for basic rate taxpayers (£500 for higher rate). But if you're holding a big cash buffer outside an ISA, perhaps your tax pot for January, it's worth checking.
The better news: the planned cut to the Cash ISA allowance has been dropped, so you can still put up to £20,000 a year into ISAs, including cash. The government is also working on a new "Starter ISA" aimed at first-time investors.
Dividends and wages: left alone
Healey confirmed no change to the tax on dividends or employment income. For limited company directors, dividend rates stay at the 10.75% and 35.75% that came in this April. Income tax thresholds remain frozen until 2031, as announced last year, so rising earnings will still gradually pull more people into higher bands.
Self Assessment: smaller, more regular payments (from 2029)
The way Self Assessment tax is paid is changing from 2029. Instead of the big January and July payments on account, more people will make smaller, more regular payments during the year. For anyone who has ever been ambushed by a January bill, this could actually help with budgeting, though we'll need to see exactly how it works.
At the same time, HMRC is getting more funding and stronger powers to collect overdue tax from people who can afford to pay but ignore repeated contact, including taking money directly from bank accounts. If you ever get a letter from HMRC about unpaid tax, opening it promptly is about to matter even more.
Nothing changes for your January 2027 payment.
Self-employed dads and partners: paid parental leave from 2029
Self-employed mums can already claim Maternity Allowance, but self-employed fathers and partners have had nothing. From April 2029, a new Parental Allowance will give eligible self-employed fathers, partners and adopters two weeks of support, currently worth up to £194 a week. Full eligibility rules are still to be published.
Shops, cafés and gyms: business rates relief widened
In England, the small business rates relief threshold for retail, hospitality and leisure premises rises from a rateable value of £12,000 to £18,000. The government says that takes around 70,000 more businesses out of paying business rates entirely. Other businesses in those sectors won't face an above-inflation rise for the next two years. If you run a café, salon, gym or shop, check your rateable value once the start date is confirmed.
Planning to sell your business one day?
Business Asset Disposal Relief, which lets you pay 18% Capital Gains Tax when you sell a qualifying business, has its lifetime limit cut from £1 million to £500,000 from April 2027. The rate itself isn't changing.
Alongside that, there's a new Founders' Relief: a 10% rate on lifetime gains of up to £10 million, aimed at founders of the UK's most successful companies. Who qualifies hasn't been spelled out yet. For most of our clients, £500,000 is still plenty of headroom, but if a sale is on the horizon, it's worth a conversation.
Employ people? Budget for the minimum wage rise
The National Living Wage and National Minimum Wage both rise by 3.9% from April 2027. For over-21s, that takes the hourly rate from £12.71 to roughly £13.20 (exact rates to be confirmed). If you've got staff or are thinking about your first hire, build that into next year's numbers now.
The household bits
- A £100 household energy payment for homes in council tax bands A to D in England, paid this winter
- 0% VAT on domestic electricity extended to 1 July 2027
- The 5p fuel duty cut held until 1 July 2027
- Standing charges removed from household gas bills from 2027, or as soon as possible after
What hasn't changed
- Making Tax Digital for Income Tax still drops to £30,000 from April 2027
- Capital Gains Tax rates stay at 18% and 24%
- Personal allowance and tax bands stay frozen until 2031
What to do now
- Side business under £3,000? Don't change anything yet. The £1,000 limit still applies for this tax year, and the new allowance doesn't start until April 2027.
- Drive for work? Start a mileage log today if you don't already have one. An app or a simple spreadsheet is fine.
- Landlord? Rerun your numbers for 2027/28 with the higher rates, and get advice before restructuring anything.
- Over £30,000 of income? Check whether Making Tax Digital applies to you from April 2027.
- Employer? Pencil in the wage increase for April 2027.
- Saver? Keep using your ISA allowance. It's staying at £20,000.
Budgets always generate more headlines than real changes, and most of today's measures don't kick in until April 2027 or later. That gives you time to plan properly instead of reacting, and we'll update this post as the detail lands.
If you'd like to know what the Autumn Budget 2026 means for your own numbers rather than everyone's, that's exactly what our tax planning service is for.