From an indirect tax perspective, there were no huge surprises in this year's Autumn Budget.

VAT rates and registration thresholds remain unchanged; Fuel Duty continues to be frozen - albeit with a staggered increase from September 2026 in sight; and Alcohol Duty is again uprated in line with RPI. Tobacco and vaping products also saw duty rises and a Vaping Products Duty was announced as coming into force in 2026.  

As expected, Electric Vehicle Excise Duty (charged at 3 pence per mile for full electrics and 1.5 pence per mile for plug in hybrids) was announced as coming into force in early 2028.

One interesting development was the announcement of the exclusion of all London-based private hire vehicle operators and platforms - and some others nationwide - from the Tour Operators Margin Scheme with effect from 2 January 2026. This will impose VAT-collecting obligations on such organisations in real time and is estimated to increase the VAT take by nearly £700m by 2029-30, with the removal of VAT relief for top-up payments made to lease more expensive vehicles via Motability raising a further £300m by the same point.

Buried deep in the associated Budget documentation were further announcements:

• that e-invoicing for VAT purposes will be required for all business-to-business and business-to-government transactions from 2029, with a roadmap for this transition published at Budget 2026;
• that a new VAT relief for business donations of goods to charity for distribution will come into force in April 2026;
• that the requirement for individual producers to account for VAT on unreturned deposits under the Deposit Return Schemes will be removed;
• that clarity on cross border VAT grouping will soon be produced; and
• that a consultation will shortly commence on the VAT considerations around land for development for social housing.

Get in touch

To discuss any of these areas in more detail, please get in touch with me at alex.nicholson@jcca.co.uk, your usual JC contact, or another member of our VAT & Indirect Taxes team.