CHAMBER NEWS
Oil price slump has long-term risk
Tax return changes will hit small firms
Millions of entrepreneurs and small business owners will be forced to file tax returns online four times a year by 2020. Self-employed workers, landlords
and small business owners currently have to submit figures just once every 12 months. The plans, outlined in a paper published in December – called Making Tax Digital – were slipped out in the small print of George Osborne’s Autumn Statement. The move will affect around four
million people, including the self- employed, small business owners and landlords who make more than £10,000 a year profit.
‘The Chamber says the move will add to the reams of red tape already strangling small firms’
The Chamber, which represents
more than 3,800 businesses across Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire and Leicestershire, says the move will add to the reams of red tape already strangling small firms. Chamber Chief Executive Scott
Knowles (pictured) said: “The cost of complying with the UK’s tax system has become a major burden
in recent years. “These changes are going to add
another layer of bureaucracy to SMEs already struggling with changes to pension rules, the forthcoming adoption of a new National Living Wage and all the other red tape which affects their businesses day-to-day. “While the intention behind the
move towards digital returns is laudable, the reality is that increasing the reporting requirement to four times a year will place unnecessary cost and resource pressures on firms which already struggle to complete a single, annual return.”
Commenting on reports in the media last month about a global oil prices slump, Scott Knowles, Chief Executive of the Chamber, said: “The immediate impact of low oil prices on businesses – and consumers – is good because it reduces the cost of doing business day-to- day and puts more money in people's pockets due to lower fuel prices. “However, it also comes
with longer term uncertainties. “Oil, and particularly
investment in oil, is one of the foundations of the global economy and long-term low prices create a series of unknowns in the global markets, specifically around inflation and associated changes to interest rates. “For those businesses in the
sector - many of which are supplied by businesses in the East Midlands - this also creates uncertainties. “UK policy needs to be
mindful of this to ensure businesses can be best insulated from any future shocks.”
business network February 2016 15
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