With the economy flat-lining the chancellor is having to fund his tax giveaways by making cuts elsewhere.
To this end there were a number of tax giveaways he abolished. First up: non-doms.
Tax relief: no more
The non-dom status is to be abolished, though not entirely. Instead it is to be replaced with a residency-based system, whereby no tax will be levied on foreign income in the first four years of UK residence.
After that, new residents will pay the same tax on foreign earnings as everyone else would.
This should raise £2.7bn a year by the end of the forecasting period, the chancellor said.
The furnished holiday lettings regime, giving landlords tax breaks when letting holiday homes for short periods of time, is also being abolished, this time entirely.
Hunt stated he was concerned the regime was creating a “distortion”, meaning there were not enough properties available for long-term rental by local people.
“To make the tax system work better for local communities, I am abolishing the furnished holiday lettings regime,” he said.
Finally, stamp duty relief on multiple dwellings, where someone purchases more than one property at same time, is also being abolished.
It was intended to support investment in the private rental sector but the chancellor said there was “no strong evidence that it had done so and that it was being regularly abused”.
carmen.reichman@ft.com