Originally written by Anna Jordan on Small Business
The Government may extend its proposed 2 per cent online sales tax to all small business – both online and bricks and mortar.
It’s been urged to extend online sales to high street sales that have been made online, such as travel, accommodation and software.
Around £100bn a year is spent with retailers, and the value of all online sales excluding financial services is £700bn, the Treasury said.
This proposal emerged in the interim report on the Business Rates Review, to which the Chancellor is due to respond at the autumn Budget. The report – a summary of business responses – was published on ‘Tax Day’, a new arrangement at which consultations and reviews are released after the Budget.
The Treasury is under more immediate pressure to cut business rates, which raise £30bn a year but have been blamed for harming the high street by penalising physical retailers.
HM Treasury has published a host of consultations and plans to make tax work in the modern day, while trying to recover £31bn every year which is lost to flaws in the current tax system.
>See also: Kevin Hollinrake calls for abolition of business rates
“Respondents stressed that uniform business rates reductions
Tag Archive for Business rates
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Government extends business rates relief by £1.5bn to help more Covid-hit firms
by Anna Jordan • • 0 Comments
Originally written by Anna Jordan on Small Business
The Government is making an extra £1.5bn in business rates relief available to firms that weren’t eligible before – including offices and wholesalers.
Existing business rates relief is available to those in retail, leisure and hospitality.
The Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) welcomed the move. “Many of those businesses such as wholesalers, suppliers and brewers have been hit hard by the pandemic but haven’t been able to access the same levels of support,” said its national chair, Mike Cherry.
However, business rates relief appeals made due to Covid-19 are now banned as well. These appeals were expected to cost up to £5bn, so the Government has saved itself £3.5bn, according to figures from the Rating Surveyors’ Association.
>See also: Business rates appeal talks halted as thousands of firms wait for outcome
The Government said that allowing rates appeals on material change of circumstances could have led to ‘significant amounts of taxpayer support going to businesses who have been able to operate normally throughout the pandemic’. It added this could disproportionately benefit firms in London.
‘It is the wrong thing to do on every level’
Experts describe the move as ‘outrageous’, writing off the hundreds of thousands of business owners who
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Government mulls extending 2% online sales tax to all small businesses
by Anna Jordan • • 0 Comments
Originally written by Anna Jordan on Small Business
The Government may extend its proposed 2 per cent online sales tax to all small business – both online and bricks and mortar.
It’s been urged to extend online sales to high street sales that have been made online, such as travel, accommodation and software.
Around £100bn a year is spent with retailers, and the value of all online sales excluding financial services is £700bn, the Treasury said.
This proposal emerged in the interim report on the Business Rates Review, to which the Chancellor is due to respond at the autumn Budget. The report – a summary of business responses – was published on ‘Tax Day’, a new arrangement at which consultations and reviews are released after the Budget.
The Treasury is under more immediate pressure to cut business rates, which raise £30bn a year but have been blamed for harming the high street by penalising physical retailers.
HM Treasury has published a host of consultations and plans to make tax work in the modern day, while trying to recover £31bn every year which is lost to flaws in the current tax system.
>See also: Kevin Hollinrake calls for abolition of business rates
“Respondents stressed that uniform business rates reductions
Hot Business News Today
Kevin Hollinrake calls for abolition of business rates
by Timothy Adler • • 0 Comments
Originally written by Timothy Adler on Small Business
Conservative MP Kevin Hollinrake has reiterated his call for the abolition of business rates ahead of next month’s Budget on March 3.
Business rates, he said, are “anachronistic” and should be replaced instead by a 3 per cent increase in VAT that all businesses would pay.
This 3 per cent increase in VAT to 23 per cent would affect all businesses, not just retailers, and the £30bn raised each year would cancel out the scrapping of business rates.
>See also: Just when you thought it couldn’t get worse, business rates return in April
Currently, the Treasury appears to be leaning towards a 2 per cent online sales tax to be announced in the autumn statement.
But Mr Hollinrake points out that most businesses now have a mixed model of physical and online sales, and calculating which sales were digital would be complex.
Mr Hollinrake presented his bill calling for the abolition of business rates last month in the House of Commons. So far, there has been no Treasury response. But his conversations with retailers such as Tesco, B&Q and Screwfix have been positive, as has the response from the ACS, which represents convenience stores.
>See also: Chancellor Rishi Sunak may
Hot Business News Today
Kevin Hollinrake calls for abolition of business rates
by Timothy Adler • • 0 Comments
Originally written by Timothy Adler on Small Business
Conservative MP Kevin Hollinrake has reiterated his call for the abolition of business rates ahead of next month’s Budget on March 3.
Business rates, he said, are “anachronistic” and should be replaced instead by a 3 per cent increase in VAT that all businesses would pay.
This 3 per cent increase in VAT to 23 per cent would affect all businesses, not just retailers, and the £30bn raised each year would cancel out the scrapping of business rates.
>See also: Just when you thought it couldn’t get worse, business rates return in April
Currently, the Treasury appears to be leaning towards a 2 per cent online sales tax to be announced in the autumn statement.
But Mr Hollinrake points out that most businesses now have a mixed model of physical and online sales, and calculating which sales were digital would be complex.
Mr Hollinrake presented his bill calling for the abolition of business rates last month in the House of Commons. So far, there has been no Treasury response. But his conversations with retailers such as Tesco, B&Q and Screwfix have been positive, as has the response from the ACS, which represents convenience stores.
>See also: Chancellor Rishi Sunak may
Hot Business News Today
Budget 2021 and what it means for small business
by Timothy Adler • • 0 Comments
Originally written by Timothy Adler on Small Business
Rishi Sunak is set to extend furlough and other Covid support for small business in next month’s Budget 2021 on March 3.
The chancellor is almost certain to also extend the current business rates suspension for many small businesses, while setting the scene for an online sales tax all retailers may have to pay later in the year.
In July it was revealed that the Treasury was considering a 2 per cent online sales tax to raise £2bn a year, giving physical shops an advantage when it comes to purchases made instore.
>See also: SME owners hold £1.2bn of personal liabilities linked to Covid-19 loans
Recent polling by Kekst CNC found that an online sales tax would be the most popular way of recouping some of the costs of the Covid crisis: 56 per cent of voters want online retailers to pay more tax.
One idea is that small businesses that sell online could offset their business rates against the online sales tax, giving high street shops a boost.
Meanwhile, 18 companies and organisations including Waterstones have urged Sunak to introduce a digital sales tax while reducing business rates.
Business rates are assessed every few years and based on rent
Hot Business News Today
Budget 2021 and what it means for small business
by Timothy Adler • • 0 Comments
Originally written by Timothy Adler on Small Business
Rishi Sunak is set to extend furlough and other Covid support for small business in next month’s Budget 2021 on March 3.
The chancellor is almost certain to also extend the current business rates suspension for many small businesses, while setting the scene for an online sales tax all retailers may have to pay later in the year.
In July it was revealed that the Treasury was considering a 2 per cent online sales tax to raise £2bn a year, giving physical shops an advantage when it comes to purchases made instore.
>See also: SME owners hold £1.2bn of personal liabilities linked to Covid-19 loans
Recent polling by Kekst CNC found that an online sales tax would be the most popular way of recouping some of the costs of the Covid crisis: 56 per cent of voters want online retailers to pay more tax.
One idea is that small businesses that sell online could offset their business rates against the online sales tax, giving high street shops a boost.
Meanwhile, 18 companies and organisations including Waterstones have urged Sunak to introduce a digital sales tax while reducing business rates.
Business rates are assessed every few years and based on rent
Hot Business News Today
Businesses ‘crippled’ by Tier 4 call for more government help
by Timothy Adler • • 0 Comments
Originally written by Timothy Adler on Small Business
UPDATED: There are now over a million business premises shut down across the UK, according to the Federation of Small Businesses.
Many of these small businesses have “no cash reserves left”, according to the FSB, having invested heavily in making themselves Covid secure.
Meanwhile, business group UK Hospitality said that the sector has been “effectively shut down” from today, following yesterday’s widening of Tier 4 restrictions to much of the rest of Britain, which limits pubs, cafes and restaurants to takeaway only.
Three quarters of the population of England are now living under Tier 4 rules, which also require non-essential retailers such as clothing and homeware stores, gyms and hair and beauty salons to close.
>See also: Which small businesses can stay open in Tier 4 lockdown?
Kate Nicholls, chief executive of UK Hospitality, has called for new support grants and the extension of the reduced VAT rate and the business rates holiday beyond March if the government wants to avoid “hundreds and thousands of job losses”.
On Tuesday, FSB chairman Mike Cherry wrote to Rishi Sunak proposing a five-point package including converting Covid emergency debt into shares for small business employees, another round of grants and a German-style
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Businesses ‘crippled’ by Tier 4 call for more government help
by Timothy Adler • • 0 Comments
Originally written by Timothy Adler on Small Business
Businesses are calling for further support to help them stave off collapse following the government’s shock imposition of Tier 4 on Saturday.
Specifically, business lobby groups are calling for the business rates holiday to be extended for another 12 months from January, VAT relief and additional direct support for businesses forced to shut.
Business rates are currently due to restart from April, which will cost already punch-drunk companies £12.8bn during 2021, according to property adviser Altus Group.
>See also: Bounce Back Loan Scheme extended until the end of March
Non-essential shops, hairdressers and leisure and entertainment venues were forced to close yesterday after Boris Johnson’s abrupt announcement on Saturday afternoon to enforce new Tier 4 restrictions amid concerns about a more virulent coronavirus strain spreading rapidly in London and the South East.
Health secretary Matt Hancock suggested yesterday Tier 4 will stay in place until the vaccine programme has sufficiently immunised the population – which could take months. There is now talk of Tier 4 being imposed until Easter.
Meanwhile, all non-essential shops in Wales will shut from Boxing Day when it mirrors England’s Tier 4 restrictions, while Scotland and Northern Ireland also go into their own three-week and
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Just when you thought it couldn’t get worse, business rates return in April
by Timothy Adler • • 0 Comments
Originally written by Timothy Adler on Small Business
The government needs to say whether the current one-year business rates holiday for retail and hospitality businesses is going to be extended.
So says John Webber, head of business rates of property consultancy Colliers International, which has monitored the number of business rates appeals flooding the Valuation Office Agency (VOA), part of HM Revenue & Customs, which is tasked with processing complaints as part of a three-stage “check, challenge, appeal” process.
According to Colliers, some 170,000 businesses have taken the first step towards appealing against their rates since the pandemic began in the UK in March. That is more than the total number in the three previous years, during which 159,000 queried their rates.
>See also: Chancellor Rishi Sunak may scrap business rates in favour of a land tax
Partly, it’s the government’s own fault that the VOA is so swamped with business rates appeals.
Businesses are being forced into challenging ratings assessments now because the government has yet to announce whether the one-year business rates holiday for retail and hospitality announced in March is going to be extended.
Business rates are a tax on properties that are used for commercial purposes and are charged based on an estimate