The FPB has expressed its approval of the business friendly emergency budget, saying that it contained various key victories for small businesses such as smaller contractor accountants.
The 1% reduction in small companies’ tax was a positive measure, as was the £5 million threshold for relief on capital gains tax (CGT) for entrepreneurs and limited company contractors.
The Forum thinks that the government demonstrated its appreciation of the issues relating to small businesses by extending the Enterprise Finance Guarantee scheme, continuing the tax breaks for holiday let properties and abolishing back-dated business rates.
The full budget document pledged to review recruitment and employment law and this was something the FPB had called on them to do. Forum members often cite employment regulations as a major area of concern so any measures to simply the law will be welcomed.
Phil Orford, the FPB chief executive, believes owners of small businesses would have been pleasantly surprised by the budget.
On the subject of the impending VAT rise, Orford said that although this will have an impact, he thinks the majority of Forum members would rather this outcome than an increase in other taxes or a further reduction in public spending.
The FPB will now be calling on the government to give a guarantee that it will provide genuine private sector input to help boost local economic growth, especially in those areas that will suffer from public sector job cuts.
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Image: Let it grow by James Jordan
