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Press Release

Simplify to succeed, FSB tells Chancellor

21 March 2006

The FSB has urged Gordon Brown to simplify the tax system to stimulate private sector growth and boost UK competitiveness, ahead of the Chancellor’s 10th Budget tomorrow.

The UK’s biggest business organisation called for an increasingly complex and burdensome tax system to be streamlined and for IR35 legislation, which generates very little revenue and discourages entrepreneurship, to be abolished. The FSB also urged the Government not to view small businesses as an easy target for tax rises.

The FSB has been encouraged by recent Government commitments to cut red tape, but has seen little effect on the ground. It’s now high time for Mr Brown to make good on those commitments in the Budget.

Simon Sweetman, FSB Tax Spokesman, said:

“The UK tax system has become increasingly complex after years of continuous, ill-thought-out tinkering by successive Governments.

“In this environment, entrepreneurship is stifled and small businesses are buried under mountains of bureaucracy, leaving them with less time to create jobs and generate wealth.

“Small businesses produce more than half of the UK’s GDP. The Government must recognise that contribution by making the tax system manageable for them. At the moment, it’s a dog’s dinner and must be reformed. We hope the Chancellor is listening.”



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