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As seasoned Budget watchers from the freelancer sector will know that the devil is very much in the detail of the mountains of reports and papers which come out after the Budget.
But there were a few clues in the Chancellor's speech which will have the experts delving through the details for more information on issues such as the £2,000 reduction in employers' NIC bill and what conditions or safeguards there might be; the naming and shaming of aggressive tax avoidance scheme providers; the changes to the main rate of corporation tax; the impact on offshore employment intermediaries and whether there is any forthcoming guidance on office holders which was well trailed in advance of the Budget.
But the general headline issues as announced from the Dispatch Box are already clear.
Tax
Income tax threshold to be £10,000 by next year (a year earlier than planned)
Clamdown on tax evasion and aggressive tax avoidance
Name and shame promotors of tax avoidance schemes
Target offshore employment intermediaries
Agreements with Isle of Man and Channel Islands to combat tax avoidance and evasion
Business
New employment allowance with the first £2,000 taken off all employers' National Insurance bill which should benefit 450,000 small firms.
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Government procurement from small firms to rise fivefold
Incentive for employee share ownership
Main rate corporation tax will be reduced by a one per cent to 20 per cent in April 2015 (in line with the small business rate)
Tax incentives for the creative industry sector
Economy
Economic growth is forecast to be 0.6 per cent this year
Public sector net debt will fall by 2017/18
Bank of England to work to help UK's economic growth
Borrowing of £114 billion this year, up from previous £108 billion forecast
Miscellaneous
Beer duty cut by 1p a pint
Planned fuel duty rise scrapped
Single flat-rate pension of £144 a week brought forward a year to 2016
Twenty per cent tax relief on childcare up to £6,000 per child from 2015
£5,000 payments for those who lost money on Equitable Life policies bought before 1992
Infrastructure and housing
£3 billion for infrastructure
Range of incentive for home ownership, in a 'Help to Buy' package including shared equity loans
Public sector
Service personnel to be exempt from public sector one per cent pay rise cap
Most Government departments to see budgets cut by one per cent in each of next two years (Education and NHS protected)
£11.5 billion in further cuts earmarked in 2015-16 Spending Review, up from £10bn
Six private sectors jobs created for every one public sector job lost.
More information
As the dust settles and the significance of the measures for freelancers becomes a little clearer, Shout99 will be continuting its focused coverage with analysis from experts of the issues in the Budget (and the more important ones behind the Chancellors words) in our Political News.
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Susie Hughes © Shout99 2013
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