The Office for Tax Simplification (OTS) is calling on the government to reform the tax system for businesses at the key stages of their growth.
A report published on 16 April 2018 outlines several areas where the taxation of businesses could be simplified and reliefs made more accessible.
While various reliefs available to businesses in the UK have encouraged entrepreneurship, the report claimed many SMEs either misunderstand or are unaware of them.
Such reliefs include the Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme, the Enterprise Investment Scheme and Venture Capital Trusts.
The report also looked at how entrepreneurs’ relief, capital gains tax gift relief and inheritance tax reliefs interact for business assets, highlighting the confusion this can cause.
Overall, the report examined the taxation of businesses at 5 key points:
starting a business
incorporating a business
seeking finance
business succession
disposal of a business
Paul Morton, tax director at the OTS, said:
This paper takes a significant first step towards meeting the pressing need to undertake a detailed review of the tax system as it operates across the business life-cycle.
It is aimed at helping the businesses that are the lifeblood of the UK economy to maximise their opportunities and to make the system clear and simple to understand and use.
As we've now entered the new tax year, we've outlined below how to prepare for the new tax system changes for 2026/27 and why planning ahead for your tax return in January 2027 is advised. Read our blog for an overview of the upcoming changes.
While you can’t control geopolitical tensions, economic volatility, shifting regulations, you can control how your business is structured to respond to them
Building a Better Business with an Outsourced Finance Function
Compliance matters, but most commercial problems do not arrive neatly at month end. Modern finance supports decisions as they happen, not just records them afterwards.