A new study shows that Gordon Brown’s popularity with SME business owners is currently at an all-time low. A substantial 71% of SME business owners and managers now believe that Brown and Alistair Darling are bad news for UK enterprise, according to a survey by research consultancy FreshMinds.
Nearly half of those who took part were downbeat about the economy’s prospects for the next 12 months, the changes to the capital gains tax regime have lost upset a considerable number of them – 54% reckon the changes will have a negative impact.
Sadly, some SME managers now believe that running a business is now more trouble than it’s worth. 35% say they’d rather be an employee than an employer at the moment, and many seemed are preoccupied with the shortcomings of the current government than the kind of day-to-day business issues that would normally be top of the agenda.
Obviously tax increases are always going to be unpopular, but it’s clear that Brown and Darling have lost confidence at the smaller end of the business scale. The recent farce caused by HMRC won’t help either.
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The impact of this change in capital gains tax has in my view been exaggerated.
Yes it’s irritating to have to pay more tax.
Yes a rise from 10% to 18% for a business can be a lot of money but come on, and 18% tax rate is no hardship when you look at the burden we pay through PAYE and national insurance.
Yes but if you look at the increases in tax on small businesses under labour it’s considerable.