FDs oppose business rates hike
The Big Question: Would your business pay additional business rates for certain services?
A resounding majority of UK finance directors oppose the levying of additional business rates to fund extra services with only 18% expressing support for the proposal, according to this week’s Accountancy Age/Reed Accountancy Personnel Big Question.
Many of 71% respondents who expressed opposition to the proposal, put forward in a Department of the Environment green paper published last week, preferred to remain anonymous. But a typical comment was: ‘We couldn’t trust our local council to make right decisions allocating resources.’
A more positive note was sounded by Steve Crook, FD of Montell UK. ‘I would need to know what the money was going to be spent on, but if it was local environmental issues then I would be more than happy.’
The paper proposes an additional supplement of up to one per cent extra per year on business, subject to approval by the business community.
The precise arrangements are as yet unclear, but are unlikely to become law before the next election.
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