Most of this nations businesses come under the tag of SMEs [Small to Medium Enterprises], and so it has always been since the industrial revolution. However, this means that they are going to take the brunt of the secondary factors in the period of austerity, simply due to the fact that there are so many. This is not to say that the chancelor didn't put down many measures to offset the pain in a sector that already has such a high attrition rate, but this is still going to be severe.
The government has raised the threshhold on tax relief for "entrepreneurs" but at the same time capital gains taxes have gone up.
"Employers face higher healthcare benefits costs after the chancellor announced an increase in Insurance Premium Tax (IPT) yesterday, experts have warned."
Warned a leading website.
This could be worrying to every SME that offers a Corporate health plan as a perk to try to entice better employees to their growing business.
The full budget has not been giiven the complete running over to see which parts affect the others and what the economy as a whole will look like after the dust has settled and everything has run its course. Some of the measures in the budget were simply conciliatory, such as the repealing of the tax hike on cider, but others are sure to have a big impact. For example nobody really knows what effect the cutting of 25% spending in all government departments will really do, apart from making a lot of civil servants no longer civil servants, and how much can unemployed civil servants spend, not very much. This may get worse before it gets better.
