Business Update – July-August 2026
July 31, 2026
The new Prime Minister Andy Burnham has only just taken over from Sir Keir Starmer, so beyond a stated focus on addressing cost of living concerns, it’s difficult to interpret the new Prime Minister and Chancellor’s economic vision for the country. The summer recess affords the new government some breathing space to take stock and define its priorities.
Business owners in the UK have been subject to a series of changes and adjustments to taxation and reporting in recent years, partly because of HMRC’s ongoing Making Tax Digital programme, partly shutting down fraudulent activity, and of course as a response to the flagging UK economy. In this edition of our newsletter, the feature explores at the current landscape for close company owners, reviewing the 2025 changes as well as those introduced in 2026. With additional reporting requirements and a hike in dividend taxation, the pressures are real.
The way taxable benefits must be processed within a business is also starting to change so that associated income tax is handled within the payroll. The original proposal involved the completion of data fields in triple digits, but has since been simplified, and the benefits included in phase one are the simplest to handle.
Other stories we explore in this edition include:
• Graduates paying a high price – While all graduates must repay 9% of their loans once they earn over a certain threshold, Plan 2 loan holders also have a variable interest rate to add in leaving this cohort facing the highest bills of their generation.
• Self-employed pensions gap – With no autoenrollment pension scheme to give them a push in the right direction, self-employed workers have fallen behind in pension saving. Fewer than 40% of 31–50-year-olds are paying into a pension after five years of starting their business.
• Profit and loss reporting returns– After a period on hold, increased reporting requirements for small businesses and micro-entities are back, but with an amendment allowing owners concerned about the negative impacts to opt out of making their P&L public.
We also cover unfair dismissal reform, advisory fuel rate increases, changes to the rules about preservation of pension entitlement for those travelling abroad, and more.
Our next newsletter will be out in October, when the Burnham government’s agenda will be underway and we may even have seen a Budget. Meanwhile please do contact us if we can continue to help or provide you with more information on any of the topics covered here.