Business tax summary: Osborne woos business with investment treats

The Chancellor has announced a raft of investment incentives in his Budget announcement, most notably a national insurance contributions (NICs) relief for small businesses.

In a bid to help drive growth, from April 2014 the government will introduce a new “employment allowance” that will reduce each company’s NIC bill by £2,000.

Osborne said the allowance will mean 450,000 small businesses will pay no “jobs tax” at all. Up to 1.25 million employers are set to benefit, with more than 90% of the benefit going to small businesses.

TaxCalc’s Alex John said during AccountingWEB's live blog that the move would have a “really big impact” on small business. “For small businesses that are trying to grow, the cost of employing someone is a bit of a blocker, and this new measure goes some way to alleviating that cost,” she said.

Register with AccountingWEB for free to read the rest of the document, which includes:

• Employee shareholder status: shares for rights
• Corporation tax moves towards single 20% rate in 2015
• Capital gains tax relief for SEIS shares
• Stamp duty exemption for growth market shares
• R&D tax relief
• Company cars - new low emission bands

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