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Lettuce Be Clear

Posted on: 25 Nov, 22

Whilst people need excitement, businesses need stability, consistency and clarity. Sadly, we’ve had precious little of that sort of thing so far this year. Is there now hope of a steadier course? Join us as Oury and Clark try and unpick if we have actually turned a corner or if it is just the first bend on yet another government u-turn.

Oury, you look dazed. Are you alright?

I’m in a state of high confusion Clark, I don’t know up from down.

Have you had a bang on the head, if so we need to take that seriously.

What? No! At least i don’t think so I’m just feeling disorientated

Not to worry, I used to volunteer for the St. John’s Ambulance you know. Simple test to check. First a couple of questions. So, can you tell me who the prime minister is?

Aaaaaargh

Oh, yes, of course trickier than it used to be that one. Though your reaction tells me that you are most likely perfectly sane and compos mentis. Though in case you aren’t the prime minister is currently…

Sh, no point in trying to be topical, everything will have changed by the time we have finished speaking.

Quite, been a bit of a run on the politician market the mini financial thingummy hasn’t there?

Well, yes, but it’s not the ever changing politicians that are the problem, it’s the ever changing policy that is the problem.

I don’t follow?

Exactly, no one can, that’s precisely the point. Cheap Money, Free Spending, Magic Money trees, No Magic Money trees, Tax and Spend, Spend with no Tax, Taxes going down, going up frankly everything is going sideways. I’m having a tax breakdown.

I would have thought complicating tax would be a boon for you accountants Oury?

Well, yes and no, mainly no. Short term yes, but long term, when the dust has settled much less so.

Because of higher taxes?

Not really Clark. It’s bigger than that.

Super high taxes?

No, the lack of a long term plan, the lack of an, at least, relatively consistent ideology. Businesses will put up with most things if they know what the rules are and that they can plan ahead with confidence that they won’t change for a reasonable amount of time.

So they don’t care about the level of tax?

Well of course they do, but whichever way you cut it, despite everything, the UK is still an attractive place to do business, even if we don’t know whether we are trying to be Singapore or Germany.

Sounds like the start of a joke. And this is no place for jokes.

Indeed and we don’t end up being the punchline. What I was trying to say was that whether corporation tax is 19% or 25%, or if social security is 13.8% or 15.05% doesn’t matter. They compare favorably with other countries, and operating in the UK has a lot of benefits. But businesses just want to be able to plan.

I guess people just want a plan they can invest in.

Quite, they want something for the long term and for long term business investment at least we do have some certainty.

You have a plan, do you have a decent cabinet? If so, I could have a job for you

I have a very robust chest of drawers, but frankly that’s none of your business. The good news is that of all the ideas they threw out – they are keeping the £1M annual investment allowance, and increasing SEIS to £250k from April

Oh good – er- but what does that mean.

That’s the fact you can spend up to £1m in plant and machinery you will be able to get 100% deduction up front until April next year. And it means that very small early stage companies (less than 2 years of trade, less than £200k in assets) can now attract £250k of investment rather than £150k under the incredible generous SEIS where investors are getting 50% of their money back through their tax returns.

That is super, do you have any more information? Any other cunning plans?

Well i’m pretty certain that the super deduction part of this quick guide is still relevant, in terms of plans I was thinking maybe pub?

Now that is an ideology I can invest in.

Disclaimer

We are but two fictitious characters throwing out ideas and comment to stimulate debate and collect information. As professional service firms, we are open-minded people and think independent thought and debate are essential to help us understand as well as navigate complex problems. By joves – doing business across Europe (and the world) is set to become a whole lot more complex in light of recent seismic political events. As businesses – we provide information and hopefully some wisdom – and we see this blog and its caricatures merely as a much more fun, perhaps slightly controversial, way of stimulating debate and collecting ideas. We’re searching for some true pearls of wisdom, and as we find them, we’ll share them with you.