Originally written by Timothy Adler on Small Business
Government has been urged to simplify the current small business tax regime, replacing myriad taxes with a levy on turnover.
Free-market think tank the Centre for Policy Studies argues that small and family businesses with revenue of under £1m should be given the option to replace corporation tax, business rates, VAT and employer’s National Insurance with a “simple consolidated tax”.
Home Secretary Sajid Javid was due to launch the Think Small report in London today. The report is written by Nick King, former special adviser to Javid when he was business secretary.
According to a YouGov poll commissioned for the report, 75pc of small business owners believe the current tax regime is too complicated.
Entrepreneur enthusiasm
Seventy-two per cent out of more than 2,000 SME owners and managers said they would move to a simple turnover tax if the amount of tax they had to pay remained the same, because of its simplicity. More than a quarter of respondents said they’d move to the new system even if it meant paying more tax.
From the Treasury’s viewpoint, a SCT would raise the same amount of money as current arrangements, while SME owners who found themselves paying more under the