24th March 2010

The reality of business taxes

We received our new business rate demand in the office yesterday.  An increase of 104% over the next four years.  Result: the government will take from us the equivalent cost of employing one new person.  So instead of creating a new job, we will hand over the cash to the government instead.

If I were convinced that it was going into an efficient, focused and well managed public sector, that would be one thing.  But given the scandalous waste of money on our own doorstep - on car parks, "free" lunches, consultants, spurious training courses and spin doctors - we all know that a good part of it will be wasted.

Mr Mole has challenged me to explain what we would do to get the economy going again.  Here he has his answer: reduce business taxation and then businesses can get on with creating jobs and generating growth; reduce bloated bureaucracy and direct money straight to the front line where it is so desperately needed.  Simple.