By Anna Jordan on Small Business UK – Advice and Ideas for UK Small Businesses and SMEs
The government has officially launched its Small Business Plan.
A list of measures have been included, with varying levels of detail. The government believes that accelerating SME growth by even 1 per cent a year could deliver £320 billion to the UK economy by 2030.
Some things have already been announced such as raising the threshold for employer national insurance payments from £5,000 to £10,500 and extending a business rate reduction for hospitality, retail and leisure businesses.
Plans to modernise tax were also laid out in HMRC’s Transformation Roadmap last month, as mentioned in our article, Making Tax Digital for corporation tax scrapped.
Below is a further snapshot of what’s to come – subject to consultation, of course.
Dealing with late payments
One of the headline reforms is the plan to tackle late payments, using the ‘toughest laws on late payments in the G7’.
This includes:
Giving strong powers to the Small Business Commissioner to fine large firms who consistently choose to pay late, potentially into the millions of pounds
The Small Business Comissioner will also be able to carry out spot checks and enforce a 30-day invoice verification period
Large companies will