Well... what a budget.
I think George Osborne did a fantastic job and has been very true to his word. He has put fuel back into Britain’s economy and was truly business- and family-focused.
The most striking announcements as far as myself and other SME owners are concerned were:
- Corporation tax reduction cut to 23%. This will allow me to invest my profits into my business's growth, so in turn it can create more jobs. This is fantastic for all profitable businesses like mine.
- Entrepreneur’s relief up to £10m. This will allow us hard-working, enterprising Brits to focus on our success and not worry about being taxed on all of our efforts.
- 45p per mile fuel allowance for business mileage was way overdue. Up until today I could only recover a fraction of the real cost of fuelling a standard petrol car. I would, however, have liked to have seen an even larger allowance.
- Rise in National Insurance was a blow. I would like to have seen this abolished. The increase in tax-free allowance helps employees and counteracts the increase but does not do much for SMEs.
- Twenty-one enterprise zones in some of the UK's most deprived areas, which will qualify for tax breaks, etc, was a huge achievement considering we were only expecting 10. This will really help ease unemployment in areas such as the North East, etc, where loss of trade means that they really need it. All eyes will now be on Boris and which zone he chooses for London. Let’s hope it's not Kensington or Chelsea.
- The council tax freeze is a great idea but I'm not sure local government can afford it. This does, however, mean that they will take non-payment arrears seriously and appoint companies like ours to collect or enforce it. For all other B2C SMEs this will allow potential customers to spend more rather than give it to the government.
I have a huge concern over Osborne's proposed Green Bank. Loaning money to high risk projects will be disastrous for the government.
When it all goes wrong, we will all end up paying with an increase in the very things that have just been cut - eg, corporation tax, etc. This is a Northern Rock situation and you would expect the government to have learned their lesson.
In summary, though, a great budget delivered excellently, and which was true to his previous word. I believe the Chancellor was totally SME-focused, which will deliver excellent results for Briton and the people we employ.
I do now believe that 'Britain is open for business' and I'm going to take full advantage of it.
