Monthly Archives: November 2019

Hot Business News Today

Sajid Javid cools talk of raising national insurance threshold to £12,500

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Originally written by Timothy Adler on Small Business
Chancellor Sajid Javid has managed expectations about the Government lifting the national insurance threshold to £12,500 if it wins the election.
Blindsided by a question from a factory worker in Teeside as to whether tax cuts were for the rich, an apparently stung Boris Johnson blurted out that his government would be “cutting national insurance up to £12,000”.
Johnson said: “If you look at what we’re doing, and what I said in the last few days, we’re going to be cutting national insurance up to £12,000, making sure we cut business rates for small businesses, we are cutting tax for working people.”
>See also: Boris Johnson offers small firms nearly £500m worth of tax cuts
However, Javid told Sky News that the plan to raise the NI payment threshold to £12,500 is an “ambition” which will “not necessarily” be reached in the next parliament.
NICs are taken from workers’ salaries and used to fund the NHS, benefits and the state pension. Workers are charged 12pc on earnings between £8,628 and £50,000.
If re-elected the Conservatives would definitely raise the threshold for millions of small business workers for them to only start NI at £9,500 next year, compared with £8,632

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Hot Business News Today

Liberal Democrats election 2019 manifesto: experts react to key policies

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Originally written by Anna Jordan on Small Business
The Liberal Democrats released their manifesto yesterday (November 20) in the run-up to the next general election on December 12.
The party have dubbed themselves as the “party of business”, pledging to get rid of business rates and tackle the ongoing issue of late payments.
Sifting out the central promises for entrepreneurs, we hear what the industry experts think about the Lib Dems’ manifesto.
Late payments
‘Require all government agencies and contractors and companies with more than 250 employees to sign up to the prompt payment code, making it enforceable’
The Lib Dems hope to take on the scourge of late payments by enforcing large businesses to adhere to the Prompt Payment Code (PPC). It’s been well received by the business community.
Paul Christensen, CEO at fintech Previse, said:
“Jo Swinson’s promise is a welcome step in the fight against late payments.
“For too long, SMEs have suffered from slow payments that stifle their growth and cut off their cash flow.
“Slow payments don’t just hurt SMEs, however, but also large corporate buyers. The expensive financing of SMEs has to be built into the cost of goods and services that the corporate buys. Put simply, it is a very inefficient way to

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