Survey highlights business concerns over taxes

A new survey has revealed that the majority of small businesses in the UK have taken a ‘dim view’ of changes made to the tax system by the current government.

The Forum of Private Business, the not-for-profit small business support group, polled its members to record attitudes on Coalition tax changes as it reaches the mid-point of its five-year term of office.

Overall, the changes were seen to be negative in terms of resolving issues around fairness, simplicity, efficiency, stability and certainty in the tax system.

In total 28% of business owners said they thought the fairness of the tax system had deteriorated, compared to 17% reporting an improvement. A quarter thought it had become more complex, opposed to 14% saying it has simplified. And dealing a blow to HMRC, 26% said the efficiency of the tax system had got worse. Just 10% thought it had improved.

A total of 94% of all business owners felt that the level of taxation on commercial properties was now too high.