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Budget 2026: cash Isas saved, but your payslip still takes a hit
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Morning, Budget day has come and gone and there's a lot to unpack for your wallet. Good news on savings, less good news on tax, and a reminder that laying off staff and making record profits can apparently happen in the same week. Let's get into it.
This is Money
Cash Isa limit survives the chop
Chancellor John Healey has scrapped plans to cut the cash Isa allowance from £20,000 to £12,000. A cash Isa is just a savings account where the interest you earn is tax free. If you like keeping some money in cash rather than investments, you can still shelter the full £20,000 a year from tax.
This is Money
The stealth tax raid nobody announced
- Workers will pay an extra £17 billion in income tax by the end of the decade
- This comes from freezing tax thresholds rather than raising rates, which is why it's called a 'stealth' tax
- As wages rise with inflation, more of your pay gets pulled into higher tax bands
- It wasn't mentioned in the Budget speech, but it's pushing the overall tax burden to a record high
The Guardian Money
Budget winners and losers
- Winners: pensioners and households, who get support with living costs
- Losers: banks and betting shops, who face higher taxes to help pay for it
- Landlords also got hit with tax rises, which could feed through to rents
- Every Budget has trade offs, this one just made its targets fairly clear
The Guardian Money
A leg up for first time buyers
A new £4.7 billion government scheme called Your First Home aims to help 70,000 households get on the property ladder. It's designed to save first-time buyers hundreds of pounds a month, details were fleshed out today after being teased last month. Worth a look if you're saving for a deposit.
The Guardian Business
Microsoft profits soar right after cutting 60,000 jobs
Microsoft posted $92.3 billion in quarterly revenue and $36.6 billion in profit, beating Wall Street's expectations. This came just days after offering buyouts to 60,000 employees, with its cloud computing arm Azure growing 48%. The stock jumped on the news, a reminder that good results and job cuts often go hand in hand for big tech.
The Guardian Business
US Fed holds interest rates steady
The Federal Reserve kept US interest rates unchanged in its last meeting before the midterm elections, even with inflation still above 3%. Two of the twelve board members actually wanted to raise rates instead. Steady rates in the US tend to ripple through to global markets, so worth keeping an eye on if you hold US investments.
Marcus's take
So the headline move, saving the cash Isa, is the kind of win that makes a nice splash but the quieter £17 billion stealth tax is the one that'll actually bite your payslip over time. Meanwhile banks and landlords are footing some of the bill for the £100 handouts, and Microsoft is proving you can slim down your headcount and fatten your profits in the same breath. Keep an eye on the small print today, that's usually where the real story lives.
One more thing
Mukesh Ambani cried tears of joy as Jio Platforms became India's second most valuable firm, proving that even billionaires get emotional about a good listing day.
That is all for today.
Marcus
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