Budget most 'pro-growth for a generation'

[AtW]

the top rate of income tax was at 60%.

It's 50% now + NI employee + NI employer + sneaky removal of personal allowance - all that easily pushes tax up to 70%+.

[Sysman]

Low CGT is not "entrepreneur friendly", it encourages people to hold on to unproductive assets and encourages needless wealth-destructive pirate equity takeovers. CGT should be higher, and income tax and corp tax should be lower, to encourage entrepreneurship.

It's an odd thing, but when I first started out on my own, the top rate of income tax was at 60%. I began by thinking that I'd ease off once I got near the threshold. In practice it encouraged me to get busy with the checkbook on office equipment and a new car.

In other words, high taxation encouraged me to invest in capital equipment (which of course gave my accountant the excuse to insert a load of depreciation).

[AtW]

Low CGT is not "entrepreneur friendly"

It is friendly for long term holdings when there is actual increase in capital, which is what should happen with successful enterprenues. It may benefit some others as well but I think it's fair to encourage long term investment anyway.

Private equity take overs can be dealt with by banning any sort of gearing, leveraging - money on the barrel: if private equity firm does not have enough of OWN cash put down by stakeholders then it should not be taking over anything.

[Freamon]

Low CGT is not "entrepreneur friendly", it encourages people to hold on to unproductive assets and encourages needless wealth-destructive pirate equity takeovers. CGT should be higher, and income tax and corp tax should be lower, to encourage entrepreneurship.

[Fred Bloggs]

Nothing will happen, it's all spin and hype. I've heard it all before.

[AtW]

They should fire Vince Cable and introduce proper long term enterprenuer friendly capital gains tax: 10% was good idea.

Scrap national insurance in areas where unemployment is high so long as locals who live in those postcodes are hired by those firms.

Stop ******* councils charging business rates on employee parking spaces

And FFS get someone on the phone in council's business rates - impossible to reach them, no sane company would create barriers between customers and sales teams.

[lilelvis2000]

Looks like nothing new that we haven't heard before. My wife got £2500 and plenty of help to setup her business.

I suppose I could be cynical and think that the conservatives are basically a south east party and wonder where these zones will be.

[amcdonald]

Don't count your chickens until they end up in a bap

[TimberWolf]

CARDIFF — The forthcoming budget will be the most pro-growth for a generation, backing entrepreneurs and slashing business red tape, Prime Minister David Cameron said Sunday.

As he prepared to speak to his governing Conservative Party's spring conference in Cardiff, Cameron said the March 23 package would help Britain to hustle and earn its way in the world again.

The message comes amid criticism that the governing Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition's plans for eliminating Britain's record deficit have focused too heavily on cutting public spending without a plan to kick-start the economy.

"In just over two weeks, our government is going to unveil the most pro-enterprise, pro-business budget for a generation," Cameron wrote in the News of the World.

"It's going to be a budget for the doers and the grafters, the builders and the businesswomen -- all those entrepreneurs who create jobs and money for the rest of us.

"We're cutting the business taxes and dealing with the nightmare of red tape and hold-ups that make life impossible for entrepreneurs."

He was to tell delegates: "We are taking on the enemies of enterprise."

These included government bureaucrats mired in rules and regulations, foot-dragging local authority officials and public sector procurement managers favouring big business over smaller firms.

He said a new Enterprise Allowance scheme would help people kick-start their business.

"If you've got an idea and want to start a business -- go for it. If you've got a business and want to grow -- tell us how we can help you," he wrote.

"Get a business plan together, and if it looks good, we will give you up to £2,000 to get started."

Cameron added: "Think back over centuries of history and this country has always out-competed, out-hustled, out-innovated, out-enterprised our competitors. It's our generation's turn to show we can do the same."

Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne said Saturday that his budget would set up "enterprise zones" [AtW comment: WTF] across Britain to boost growth in run-down areas, saying they would be "centres for new businesses and new jobs where taxes will be even lower and more restrictions on growth removed."

And he insisted there was no alternative to the government's plans to slash the record deficit, totalling around £155 billion, eliminating it in four years.

"We spend £120 million every day just paying the interest on the national debt," he said.

He also hinted that a planned one-penny-above inflation rise in petrol tax might not go ahead [AtW comment: woo-bloody-hoo], as the unrest in the Arab world pushes oil prices higher.

"When it costs £1.30 for a litre of petrol, £80 to fill up a family car, I know people feel squeezed," he said.

Copyright © 2011 AFP. All rights reserved. More »

AFP: Budget most 'pro-growth for a generation'

It's like a long winded way of describing the abolition of IR35.