[Phpwm] [Fwd] Budget report for geeks...

[David Goodwin]

Hi,

Saw this on the Geekup list and thought it might be of interest....

David.

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: [GeekUp] Budget report for geeks...
Date: Wed, 21 Mar 2007 15:00:13 +0000
From: Paul Robinson <paul at vagueware.com>
Reply-To: connect at geekup.org
To: connect at geekup.org

For those of you who are freelancers/SME owners, the stand-outs from
this afternoon's report for me are:

- 'Income tax cut by 2p' is great if you're employed, but only if
you're earning decent wonga: the 10p band is now merged into the 20p
band, and so the tax on the money earned between ~£5k and ~£7k is now
doubled

- The headlines will say 'Corporation tax cut by 2%', but in fact if
you're a small business it's rising from 19% now to 22% by 2009. This
is going to hurt me quite badly, and I'm not convinced it will stop
contractors incorporating to reduce their tax bill... it'll just make
it harder for the rest of us.

- 100% tax relief on capital investment up to £50k. The detail of
this from the Red Book (yes, I cared that much, I dug it out) is:

"This new allowance will mean that 100 per cent of expenditure up to
£50,000 on general plant and machinery (other than cars) can be
offset against taxable profits."

- 175% tax credit on 'R&D'. Also from the red book:

".. an increase in the enhanced deduction element of the SME and mid-
sized R&D tax credit from 150 per cent to 175 per cent from April
2008 subject to state aid clearance."

This is a tricky area, but I'm going to try and work out exactly what
could count as "R&D" in the dev sector - the scheme is already in
place, but I wasn't aware of it until just now so it could be loads
of us are missing out already.

- reforming empty property relief, which means we should see a lot
more offices come onto the market in Manchester and prices come down
(I bagsy the old fire station). Got to be good for all of us.

Thoughts?

--
Paul Robinson

Software R&D :: Unix/Linux :: Consultancy :: Open Source :: Comms
http://vagueware.com :: paul at vagueware.com :: +44 (0) 7740 465746

Vagueware Limited is registered in England/Wales, number 05700421
Registered Office: 3 Tivoli Place, Ilkley, W. Yorkshire, LS29 8SU
Correspondence:   55 Velvet Court, Granby Row, Manchester, M1 7AB


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