High street leisure, retail, and hospitality businesses are to benefit from a 50 per cent cut in business rates for the next financial year after Chancellor Rishi Sunak announced his Autumn 2021 Budget and Spending Review. This is believed to be a tax reduction worth almost £1.7 billion.
In a bid to add strength to high streets and retain businesses, Sunak may have given your business’ finance director or bookkeeper something to smile about when he announced that up to £110,000 could be claimed for the year 2022-23. That is if you are one of the specified businesses set to benefit from efforts to offer a helping hand to some of the sectors worst-hit by the coronavirus pandemic.
Sunak said that, along with the Small Business Rates Relief that already features on many self-assessment claims and tax returns, the new moves meant that over 90 per cent of leisure, hospitality, and retail businesses would enjoy discounts of 50 per cent or more.
Your accountants should also ensure that from 2023, your business makes the most of a new form of business rates relief designed to support property improvement investment. Your accountant can help you to ensure that your business will not face a higher rates bull for the 12 months after ‘qualifying improvements’ are made to your property.
The latter can undoubtedly make your tax return or self-assessment look much healthier for your business and can also have wide-ranging benefits. This is because it forms part of the UK government’s efforts to reach net-zero targets. This is why it is hoping to encourage businesses such as yours to adopt solutions such as solar panels and other green technologies in a bid to keep the planet as healthy as your bookkeeping.
There is also talk of the government exploring other taxation options, in addition to corporation tax, and particularly focusing on the online sales market. It is thought that in future, an online sales tax may be used to reduce business rates, leaving small businesses with a boost to their payroll budget that could be used for anything from upgrading bookkeeping services to giving talented staff pay rises.
Elsewhere in the budget, Sunak announced that data and cloud computing costs will now be included in the R&D costs eligible for tax relief. This aims to support the most modern of methods. There will also be moves to ensure R&D tax relief is refocused to benefit UK-based investment and innovation.
If there is anything you are unsure about or think may relate to you and your business – get in touch with the Neon Accounting team today for a free, friendly consultation.