What do small businesses want from the budget?

Robert Walton is managing director of The Lindhurst Group, a furnishings supplier. Walton said: “We need measures to support the redevelopment of traditional High Streets to ensure they regain their importance to the local community and contribute to local employment.”

Rhys Schofield is managing director at Peak Mortgages and Protection, a mortgage broker. Schofield said: “I want to see one thing in the Budget: the abolition, replacement or radical reform of business rates. I can’t think of a single thing that penalises investment in premises and undermines local business as much as having to pay a fortune in business rates for sweet FA as a return in most cases. This would also level the playing field with the huge internet behemoths like Amazon, who don’t contribute much in tax anyway as a percentage of the income they siphon from the economy.”

Julia Kermode is founder of IWORK, an agency employer. Kermode said: “Millions of people were excluded from the government’s financial support packages during COVID (such as self-employed and people who are paid via their limited company), so we urgently need some redress so that those who fell between the cracks can start to piece together a living.

We also need tax incentives for businesses, such as reduced corporation tax or business rates, so that they have some chance of prospering post-COVID and duly repaying the various government loans that many relied on as “support” during the pandemic.”

Lewis Shaw is founder of mortgage broker, Shaw Financial Services. Shaw said: “Firstly, scrap the national insurance hike and replace it by bringing capital gains tax in line with income tax rates.”

Adam Walkom is cofounder of Permanent Wealth Partners, a financial planning company. Walkom said: “We would love to see simplification of pensions. It may sound boring but will impact 99% of all workers. The lifetime allowance has become a huge disincentive that penalises pension savers, so potentially removing this while introducing a flat rate of tax relief for pension contributions would be a powerful statement from the Treasury.”

Finally, Tom Bowers, founder at media consultancy firm Hypothesis Media, said his priorities lay at the kitchen table. Bowers commented: “I would love to see an additional, highly punitive tax for anyone that contributes to the panic buying of Christmas turkeys.”

Lee Murphy is managing director at The Accountancy Partnership, which provides online accounting services. Murphy gave his predictions over what the budget will include: “We would hope to see financial support for small businesses in some form introduced, whether that is a revised approach to business rates, grants or investment schemes. Rebuilding from the pandemic is not going to be instant, and with ongoing adjustments following Brexit, the government needs to recognise the importance of the small business community’s contribution to the overall economy and allocate budget accordingly.

“The usual tax rate and threshold changes will likely be announced. With the debt generated by the pandemic, these are likely to be higher than ever, reinforcing the need for small businesses and their owners to be supported. The ending of the furlough scheme may present issues for businesses that are struggling to meet pre-Covid levels of demand, but hopefully this will alleviate some pressure on the employment market.

“The tax basis period reforms have been delayed, as well as the rollout of Making Tax Digital for Income Tax, which has now been pushed back to April 2024. We expect that the Chancellor will give further details on this and updates on Making Tax Digital for Corporation Tax, which will allow small businesses to start to explore how this will affect their business.”