Government aims to ease small business tax burde

 Government aims to ease business tax burden

The Office for Tax Simplification has published a series of recommendations designed to simplify tax for small businesses, including better sharing of data across departments. The proposals, aimed at companies with less than 10 employees, also include aligning filing dates for different types of taxes and providing more support from HMRC in the evenings and at weekends. Angela Knight, chair of the OTS, stated: “Britain’s microbusinesses are spending too much of their time and money sorting out their tax or paying someone to do it for them.” However, Frank Haskew of the ICAEW responded that government needs to do more to address the tax administration burden if it is serious about simplifying the system. Meanwhile, plans to cut the cost to businesses of red tape by £10bn over this parliament have been criticised for ignoring the cost of the living wage, the apprenticeship levy and the burden of complying with new taxes. Sajid Javid, the business secretary, unveiled a "one in, three out" rule on business regulations at the British Chambers of Commerce conference. But Sandra Dexter, vice-chairman of the FSB, said the review “excludes the complex and burdensome tax system.”

Source:   City AM (04/03/2016)