Accountants seek tax cuts for entrepreneurs

BUSINESS advisers RSM Tenon has launched a campaign, featuring an e-petition, seeking lower tax rates for entrepreneurs who create jobs.

As part of Global Entrepreneurship Week, the firm has commissioned a report to establish the economic backdrop and amount of support available for entrepreneurs.

The report, entitled ‘Lonely at the Top’, is due to be released later this month, but draft findings already show widespead concern over tax policies/.

Many entreprenerus believe the Government should do more to recognise the distinctive role they play, with 77% in the North saying the abolition of the 50% income tax band would do much to encourage new entrepreneurship.

More than half (55%) of those surveyed in the North saying that entrepreneurs employing more than 100 people should be taxed less because they are creating jobs.

Nearly a third, 30% feel the environment for entrepreneurs in the UK has deteriorated over the past three years, compared to the national figure of 40%.

RSM Tenon is also taking direct action with the Government to champion the cause of entrepreneurs and has launched an online petition as part of a special Entrepreneur’s Manifesto to demand that UK entrepreneurs pay a lower rate of personal tax if their companies provide much-needed job opportunities.

RSM Tenon figures show that if less than 10% of SMEs currently employing up to 250 staff took on only one extra employee, then this would inject over £1bn into the economy in tax and far more in total spending power.

Andy Raynor, chief executive of RSM Tenon, said: ‘Entrepreneurs should be seen by the Government as key allies in kick-starting the UK economy. They say that entrepreneurs are the lifeblood of the economy, and yet the level of taxation on them is at its highest for 30 years.

” There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that the current 50% higher tax rate is a massive disincentive to growth, and it is time the Government put its money where its mouth is and started to ‘relax tax’ for entrepreneurs.”

Neil Sevitt, RSM Tenon’s regional director for the North, added: ‘More than half of all the entrepreneurs we surveyed in the north said that the Government should recognise the important role they play in the economy and reward them with tax breaks.

“Providing a reduction in tax would be a great way for the Government to acknowledge the important contribution by SMEs to the local and national economy, and further encourage entrepreneurship in the UK.”
To back RSM Tenon e-petition, see: http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/20692