March 14, 2010
Filed under: Recruitment — Alan @ 3:35 am
New taxes may prevent over half of all small businesses from hiring more employees according to research from a new ICM Research survey and the Federation of Small Businesses.
The survey, which was conducted in January, showed small businesses have the want to grow in numbers but will need the correct conditions in order to get in the position where hiring new employees can be a consideration.
The survey also revealed that 64% of southeast businesses reported that taxes have negatively impacted their growth which is a view that was reiterated in the North with 60% agreeing to the impact of taxes and 59% agreeing in the London area. The overall average for the UK is around 58%.
The FSB is taking action by asking the government to stall national insurance contributions due to concern that the surge in employment that occurred during the holidays may soon end.
National chairman of the FSB, John Wright, stated that the employment figures from January saw many people able to return to work but due to the damage from the recession the figures after this period are expected to be much lower.
The FSB is urging the government to consider offering a rebate on national insurance for small businesses that have less than 50 staff members if they agree to take on new employees over the course of this year and next.
Wright continued to say that the UK economy needs some type of boost that will open up new jobs for people especially those who are under the age of 25 in order to start to recover from the fallout.
January 5, 2010
Filed under: Small business — Alan @ 6:55 am
Leaders of many of Britain’s small companies have stated that the national insurance rate increase attacks jobs and will hinder the growth rate of Britain as it comes out of the recession.
The FSB or Federation of Small Businesses stated that Chancellor Alistair Darling has effectively taken away with the same hand he gave out after he deferred a one pence increase on SMEs corporate tax, but then hiked the contributions of small businesses to national insurance by about half a percent.
The move to defer the corporation tax will help out about 850,000 SMEs, but the move to increase national insurance will hurt companies and increase the rate of unemployment since companies will not be able to afford new or possibly current employees.
Chairman of the FSB, John Wright, stated that the new tax will hurt the UK’s employment rate and that since the unemployment is on the rise it is not excusable for the government to use national insurance tax hikes as a way to get revenue. Instead, Wright stated that SMEs should have been rewarded for hiring new employees to encourage job creation.
The new point hike is on top of a previous rate increase from 2008 that affects all SMEs, their staff, and those who are self employed in Britain. Workers who earn less than twenty thousand pounds a year will be exempt from the tax hike however.
Darling also announced in his pre-Budget report that the Enterprise Finance Guarantee scheme will be offered for another year.
January 2, 2010
Filed under: Small business — Alan @ 5:42 am
Chairman of the FSB (Federation of Small Businesses), John Wright, said that small firms will continue to need aid in the coming year as they launch their recovery plans which will be dependent largely on help from banks.
Wright stated that Britain’s 5m SMEs will have a large role in bringing the UK out of the recession but that they need help in order to get there. Among the aid they will need from the Government, according to the chairman, are measures that will make it easier to hire employees and set up businesses.
He suggested that every jobcentre should have a business manager and systems should be enacted that would help place graduates with small businesses that need qualified employees.
In his New Year message Wright also said that banks need to be more competitive in offering finance options to small businesses. He stated that with the proper confidence and aid the SMEs will in return help provide jobs to those in need which will help boost recovery efforts throughout the UK.
A spokesman for the Department of Business stated that small business will help recovery and the Government has pledged to help the sector out which is why they lengthened the Enterprise Finance Guarantee for another year so that banks will continue to lend to smaller businesses.
Additionally the spokesman said that they are working with the FSB to pair 10,000 graduates with internships at SMEs.
December 18, 2009
Filed under: IT, Legal — Alan @ 8:52 am
SMEs are facing large penalties for failing to follow new procedures that were set in place to protect the credit card details of their customers.
The rules state that all businesses must be able to prove that debit and credit details are kept in a central location that is safe from fraud, such as in an approved electronic database.
However, most small business owners say that they would be happy to follow the rules, if there was more information about how to regulate or implement an appropriate system.
SMEs that are in violation of the rule must pay fines that are around a few pence for every transaction that comes through their store. This of course adds up to a much larger amount by the close of the year.
The main complaint is that the fines are not properly being assessed, with some banks failing to flag the fines, and other businesses facing fines even though they are in compliance with the new regulations.
National chairman of the Federation of Small Businesses John Wright stated that the new measures were put in place to help improve data security but that small businesses were not considered when they were first introduced.
Even more disturbing perhaps is the fact that the banks that provide processing services to UK businesses have full discretion over how much they want to charge SMEs for breaking the rules. Among the banks in the UK that asses fines are Lloyds, RBS, and HBOS.
November 3, 2009
Filed under: Small business — Alan @ 8:34 am
Wales businesses will soon get a break on their rates, with the announcement that the assembly government plans to decrease the amount many small businesses will owe in 2010.
SMEs were worried about upcoming bill hikes after it was recently evaluated that rateable values would soon rise.
Now the Welsh government is addressing the problem by lowering the rate at which SME’s bills are calculated at.
The Federation of Small Businesses stated that they are pleased with the new announcement and that many SMEs were worried after receiving revaluation notices that stated their bills would increase in the next year from the Valuation Office Agency.
The new rates will be lowered for SMEs from .489 to .409.
Wales’s chair of the FSB, Janet Jones, stated that the organization is welcoming the news but stating that they are still cautious to see what its results are. Jones continued to say that the FSB has worked hard to see a reduction in rates and they are glad to see the Government finally take notice.
A spokesman for the assembly government stated that they were not able to delay the revaluation of property, but can reduce the multiplier to make its results more suitable for business owners.
October 30, 2009
Filed under: Small business — Alan @ 8:35 am
The FSB, Federation of Small Businesses, has petitioned the Chancellor not to hike taxes in their latest pre-budget report, amidst fears that higher taxes may lead to a greater rate of unemployment.
In the submission, the FSB points to a report performed by the Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR) that shows that raising taxes costs UK businesses billions of pounds, which in turn leads to businesses being forced to cut hundreds of thousands of jobs.
The hypothetical report by the CEBR shows that a simple 1p increase in employer national insurance can result in massive job losses without actually helping out public finances in a significant manner.
Additionally, the FSB is asking that corporation taxes be reduced so that small businesses are rewarded with incentives if they hire more staff.
According to the CEBR report, if the Government were to raise corporate taxes on small businesses from 21% to 26%, 100,000 jobs would be lost from SME’s, reducing the economic output of these businesses by £4.3 billion, which in turn would only help reduce the deficit of the public sector by around £1.6b over a period of ten years.
Additionally, the FSB would like to see the VAT rise delayed as well.
September 19, 2009
Filed under: Small business — Alan @ 8:17 am
In an age where the post office is quickly being replaced by digital mail, the Federation of Small Businesses has proposed that post offices should be transformed into business hubs so that they do not disappear in the near future.
The FSB says that small firms use PO’s on a regular basis and they should receive better service than the PO s are able to provide at the moment.
It proposes that each PO should have a business desk that has staff trained to specifically offer advice on insurance, government services, banking, and the best way to send and receive parcels.
They also have requested that a Business Link service should be placed in each PO that can give out advice one-on-one the same way that mortgage advisors would, new advertising services, financial services, and the addition of meeting room facilities to aid small start up businesses as they get going.
In summary, the FSB is looking at Post Office locations as the perfect way to build a tangible social network out in the real world.
The FSB says that Post Offices at the core of many communities because not only do they collect letters and parcels, but they also are a great place for small businesses to get together and network. He added that at the moment there is no operational service that meets their needs however.
Turning post offices into the newly envisioned small business hubs will not only preserve post offices but will help sustain the local communities and encourage the growth of small businesses.
