In an interview this week on Talk TV, Richard echoed the sentiments in Shadow Chancellor Andrew Griffith’s first major speech since taking up his post, in which he made clear that Labour are taxing small businesses too much and crushing them with a tax system that works against them.
Richard, as Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury, reinforced this message by stressing that Government must be firmly on the side of small businesses. You can watch the interview here: https://youtu.be/K-_r7-ot9Mg
Richard added:
Labour's Jobs Tax, business rates raid and employer red tape have done immense damage, while tax compliance costs small businesses £25 billion and more than a working week every year.
Burnham and Healey must rule out an Exit Tax and any other tax rises, pause the expansion of Making Tax Digital and stop punishing the businesses that actually create growth.
Conservatives this week committed to:
- Replace IR-35 with a new system that respects the right of the self-employed to choose their status and only prevents actual abuse.
- Launch a commission to cut the administrative, regulatory and tax burdens facing business that will report back before Christmas and will be led by Lord Mackinlay and Robert Colvile. It will focus on how taxes can be made lower and simpler, why previous attempts to cut regulation failed and how we can improve HMRC performance.
- Pause the making tax digital/‘difficult’ programme calling on the Chancellor to pause the rollout of Making Tax Digital and to review how the same objective can be achieved at lower cost and with less pain to businesses.
