Accountants urge boost for small businesses

THE Government should boost small businesses by giving them greater tax benefits, the Chartered Association of Certified Accountants said, writes Roger Trapp.

The reforms recommended in the association's submission to the Department of Trade and Industry, to be made next week, include:

Making childcare costs available for the self-employed as a legitimate trading expense.

Simplifying the Paye system.

Making it easier to disincorporate.

Abolishing Class 4 National Insurance contributions.

Introducing a reduced corporation tax rate for small companies that retain profits for at least five years.

The association argues that the measures are needed to encourage new businesses and to sustain existing ones. Mavis Sargent, vice- chairman of the association's tax committee, said that while small businesses made up 98 per cent of all limited companies in the UK, there were record numbers of bankruptcies. 'Unless immediate help is given, not only will more and more businesses go to the wall, but budding entrepreneurs will be discouraged from starting down the entrepreneurial road.'