Unfortunately, despite the hype, this Budget is largely an irrelevance. That’s not to say it doesn’t contain its share of headline grabbing announcements – it certainly does! But welcome as some of those are, the reality is that we continue to face an economic growth crisis. And while 10% of the solution to that crisis may come from Budgets, for the other 90% we must look to business.
The simple truth is that it is businesses and not Budgets that offer us the best hope of putting things right by replacing the jobs, income and wealth lost, and generating the extra taxes needed to sort out public finances. Budget measures such as the cut in corporation tax will only ever help a bit. It is how businesses respond that really matters, since they are the real engine of growth. So for the good of us all job and wealth creating businesses must now stand up and be counted as a matter of the utmost urgency.
For business owners the sting in the tail from the Budget is the fact that the changes announced today look likely to give the taxman new powers to, in the words of one entrepreneur today, “bleed them dry”. The devil will of course be in the detail. But it does seem that many taxpayers will now face a more penal and less accommodating tax system, with many reliefs and legitimate forms of tax planning no longer available to them.
Astonishingly, the Chancellor even admitted that he would be taking “five times more money each and every year from the wealthiest”. And, worryingly, many of those he is taking five times more from are the very same business leaders we need on our side.
So, to ensure that this much tougher tax regime does not discourage business from becoming the engines of growth that society desperately needs them to be, we are today launching a 2012 Tax Minimisation Review initiative. Its aim is simple: to encourage and support growth by making sure that no-one pays a single penny more than their fair share of tax. And thanks to our sponsorship it is both free and freely available to any business owner who wants to create a better future.
If you do not want to pay a single penny more business and personal tax than you need to, you can claim a free 2012 Tax Minimisation Review by calling Sara on 0191 206 4080.
