Member Article

Commitment is key for this year’s Budget, says Tait Walker experts

Ahead of Wednesday’s Budget announcement, the experts at chartered accountancy practice Tait Walker divulge their forecasts on what The Chancellor might have in store.

Tax relief:

Tait Walker Tax adviser Chris Hodgson comments: “There are two key issues I hope to see addressed, firstly an extension of the annual investment allowance at £250,000 for a further year to the end of 2015. This will present a strong sign to businesses that the government is backing investments to encourage growth.

“Secondly, a farm or business can be free of inheritance tax to the next generation because of agricultural property relief and business property relief. A review of the legislation called into question the 100% rate of relief – the concern is that George Osborne would use the review as an excuse to reduce the rate of relief and so generate extra revenue for the Exchequer. In my view, the disruption to the succession of family businesses that would come from a fall in the rate of relief would outweigh the benefit of raising additional tax.”

Support for SMEs:

Tait Walker Tax partner Alastair Wilson said: “I would like to see a number of commitments come out of The Chancellor’s Budget. Firstly, commitment to encourage investment in the UK’s SME manufacturing sector by extending the £250,000 Annual Investment Allowance beyond 31 December 2014. This would ensure SMEs have clarity over investment decisions and can make informed choices when acquiring new plant and machinery, based on the knowledge that they will get accelerated tax relief in return for that investment.

“A commitment to encourage investment in new manufacturing facilities by providing a targeted version of Industrial Buildings Allowances, which provides 100% relief for the cost of a new factory. Limiting the relief to premises qualifying as factories would enable the relief to be targeted at the sector which is expected to drive the growth of the UK economy. It will also help encourage the trend in “re-shoring” manufacturing, which has recently been on the increase.

“Finally, a commitment to make grant funding mechanisms such as the Regional Growth Fund faster to apply for, more transparent and less of a postcode lottery and most importantly, much faster to drive actual cash flow into the local economies which it is intended to serve.”

Patent Box regime:

Tait Walker Tax manager Louise Barker said: “Although the Patent Box tax regime is currently being challenged for allegedly breaching the EU Code of Conduct for Business Taxation, I don’t think we’ll see any changes to the legislation in the 2014 Budget.

“Patent Box, which can reduce the tax rate charged on relevant profits from patented products/processes to 10%, is broadly similar to other regimes in the EU which have been in place for some time. As such, it would seem unreasonable to single out the UK regime as being harmful to competition.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Tait Walker .