Anger management

This phrase is often used, but l can say with total confidence that Anger Management is back due to public demand By Maarten Hoffmann

DISCLAIMER: All views stated here are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of this publication

THE WILFUL OBLITERATION OF SMEs

Small and medium size businesses (SMEs) in the UK are the very backbone of the country’s economy with a value in excess of £2.3 trillion. They employ 44% of the UK workforce, representing more than 99% of all registered businesses and providing the jobs for more than 86% of every worker in the country.

SMEs employ 16.3 million people – that’s 61% of the total, with the largest number being in London and the South East at 34% of the total. To quote various government ministers, “SMEs are the engine of the UK economy.”

So, why the hell are we kicked in the teeth at every turn as if we were a cash cow that just keeps on giving?

Running a business is bloody hard work and the bigger you grow, the harder it gets. Not only do we have to continuously reinvent the wheel to remain competitive, we often mortgage ourselves to the hilt and are forced to sign personal guarantees, risking our homes and families; work seven days a week; endure sleepless nights worrying if we can make payroll; neglect our families; deal with staff who, lately, think working from home is a right; deal with business rates which are among the highest in Europe; worry about keeping the doors open with goods and energy prices doubling every three minutes; clients who presume it is their right to make you wait three months for invoice payment; Brexit and the end of much needed immigration to do the jobs that Brits are too bone idle to do as benefits pay more; and ridiculously complex tax regulations. I could go on for 20 pages, but suffice to say if you squeeze until it cracks, the UK economy will go bust. Yet, here we go again.

Not only were Directors’ dividends excluded from any form of financial help during the pandemic, leaving many scrabbling around in the dust and pushed into even more personal guarantees to raise capital to survive, but now the government is looking to raid those very same ‘ignored’ dividends in an attempt to shore up the totally knackered UK economy.

❛❛ The government is making it harder and harder for those who work for themselves. Of course we need to raise tax to pay for vital public services, but time and again it seems our very smallest businesses are the first targets. We’ve already seen the number of self-employed fall dramatically since the pandemic – the government seems intent on reducing that number further. By slashing the dividend allowance, the government has once again demonstrated that it does not support small business ❜❜ Andy Chamberlain, Director of Policy at ISE The Association of Independent Professionals and the Self-Employed

You know the one – a PM for 44 days that cost us £65 billion – yeah, that one. They cocked it up and now come back to the cash cow to get their sorry backsides out of the fire.

Not only did Chancellor Jeremy Hunt reinstate plans to raise income tax on dividends by 1.25% but he has now suggested another rise of 1.25% to steal (sorry, raise) £6.5 billion. They are also planning to cut the tax-free threshold for dividends from £2,000 to £1,000.

Just as one in seven high street stores are closed, inflation is set to increase the rates burden by £3 billion in 2023 alone. Next year will see the first revaluation of commercial property since 2017; l will leave you to guess if it will go up or down! UK business rates are already 50% above the G7 average.

Then we have Corporation Tax at 19%, essentially a tax on being slightly successful having done all of the above, now set to rise to 25% in 2023. Then VAT, ever-increasing national insurance contributions and then – if you are successful in business and decide to sell – Capital Gains Tax. If you survive all that, still manage to make a buck and then die, we have the hated and deeply unfair Inheritance Tax. Then we are told to go green and are about to suffer the onslaught of a Plastic Packaging Tax, Building Safety Levy, Residential Property Developer Tax and the Economic Crime Levy.

Then we have the ludicrous term ‘quiet quitting’; the old-fashioned phrase was ‘lazyitis’ for people having lost interest in their job. The old answer was fire their lazy backsides and employ someone who does want to work. Oh, but then you’ll end up in front of an employment tribunal who will decree you owe them 50 grand for hurting their feelings.

Just when the economy is in the dumpster and we need all hands on deck, staff begin thinking it is their right to work 3-4 days a week for the same salary and the right to work from home. This is not a right, it is a result of the pandemic. Covid has resulted in over 2.5 million people being off work and long-term sick (the benefits super highway) leaving even fewer people in the talent pool. There is absolutely no doubt that the government needs to plug the hole in the public finances, or that we are suffering a mental health crisis, but continuously slamming the SME community will result in more liquidations, more unemployment, less tax paid, less business rates paid, less NI paid, more Directors losing their homes and livelihoods, and less contribution to the much needed ‘business growth’ that politicians, of all colours, trumpet ad nauseam. All this without really understanding what that means or how to achieve it as few of them have ever held a job in the real world – and few couldn’t run a whelk stall on Brighton Pier!

This really has to STOP.