. To cap it all, Companies House is looking at increasing the charges for registering a new company, putting yet another burden on anyone embarking on what will without question be the riskiest financial decision of their lives. Add it all up, and the self-employed and start-ups will be made to bail out the rest of the country. For the officials who run the Treasury, no doubt it all makes a kind of sense. Both groups are relatively lightly taxed compared to the rest of the country. Indeed, as Chancellor Sunak was already threatening to 'review' – a code word for increase – the way they are taxed. With so few alte){kind=link}
Government risks killing off one of the few remaining sectors showing any signs of life
Higher taxes on dividends. A major hike in the levy on capital gains. An end to all the reliefs for entrepreneurs, plus an extra charge on registering a new business. Oh, and a special windfall tax on anyone who happens to be a director, a levy on angel investors, and a one-off charge of £10,000 when you take on your first employee.
OK, OK, it is possible I made one or two of those up. But the rest of them are all under serious consideration by the Treasury, and heck, now that I have mentioned them some bright official is probably drafting plans for the others as well.
As the Chancellor Jeremy Hunt looks for ways to fill a black hole of £50bn in the public finances, one point is already becoming clear. Small businesses and entrepreneurs are the most likely target. True, they are relatively lightly taxed in the UK, both compared with employees and other countries. But a pro-enterprise tax and regulatory regime has also created a start-up culture that is unequalled across Europe.
If we kill that off, we will have nothing left except for the tired giants of the FTSE 100. If we have to raise taxes to fund healthcare and public services, we should just be honest about it and raise income tax and VAT instead. At least that way we won’t damage the economy any more than we have to.