On Wednesday 23 November the Chancellor Philip Hammond presented his first, and last, Autumn Statement along with the Spending Review. His speech and the supporting documentation set out both tax and economic measures. Some of the pertinent tax and employee welfare measures announced were: the government reaffirming the objectives to raise the personal allowance to £12,500 and the higher rate threshold to £50,000 by the end of this Parliament a reduction of the Money Purchase Annual Allowance for pensions to £4,000 a review of ways to build on Research and Development tax relief tax and National Insurance advantages of salary sacrifice schemes to be removed anti-avoidance measures for the VAT Flat Rate Scheme including the introduction of a higher 16.5% rate for some businesses autumn Budgets commencing in autumn 2017 National Living Wage to rise from £7.20 an hour to £7.50 from April 2017 Universal Credit taper rate to be cut from 65% to 63% from April 2017. Read our Autumn Statement Review. Internet link: GOV.UK autumn statement documents