Business leaders gather at HURST to debate implications of Budget

March 2008 

Alistair Darling’s “steady as you go” Budget speech held few surprises for Manchester’s business leaders who met in Stockport to debate its implications.

But there were warnings that businesses could suffer when the full Budget details are published over the next few days and weeks.

“The devil will be in the detail,” said HURST tax consultant David Finn, who hosted a Budget Brunch at HURST’s offices in Stockport.

Company directors, owner managers, bankers and professionals attended the event to hear the Budget speech live then benefit from expert analysis from a panel of tax and business specialists from HURST.

Said Finn: “The Chancellor showed he was not for turning. He has stuck to his originally announced £30,000 charge for non doms and also to the abolition of taper relief on capital gains tax.

“He talked in general terms about action over tax avoidance measures and husband and wife companies but the fine detail of this will be revealed in the debates leading up to the Finance Bill in July, and these could spell bad news for business.”

Finn also picked up on the Chancellor’s pledge to cut corporation tax rate for large companies from 30 per cent to 28 per cent. There was no mention, he told Budget Brunch delegates, that corporation tax for smaller owner-managed companies was, in fact, rising from 19 per cent to 22 per cent.

“And that is something that means virtually every business owner in this room will be worse off,” he said.

Nigel Barratt, of HURST Corporate Finance, expressed disappointment that the Chancellor hardly touched on the effects of the credit crunch on the region’s businesses.

“We deal with owner managers who want to raise money from banks to help grow their businesses or support sales. The big issue is whether the banks will have the liquidity to help support the businesses who desperately need these funds. The Chancellor had remarkably little to say about how the Budget would help companies being squeezed by the credit crunch.”

The HURST Budget Brunch was the first of a number of seminars and workshops planned over the next few months that will give key business advice to owner-managed companies in the region.