Wardy

Anyone with proper business experience knows the impact that is coming in April from Labour's job tax - sadly, that does not therefore include the Chancellor or the Business Secretary. There is real fear across the business community, a crisis is coming and almost all politicians have stopped talking about it. A lot of focus on the hike in NI, but not enough on the threshold change which is just as damaging. Going from a £9,100 threshold to £5,000 is brutal - it will drag countless lower paid employees into the tax for businesses. Those devising and implementing these rules, politicians and civil servants, do NOT understand how businesses operate. We all know about the experience, or lack of it, from Reeves and Reynolds. There are 306 'senior civil servants' in the Department for Business/Trade. How many have a directorship on Companies House? ONE. ONE out of 306 has current experience. Just one. These people do NOT understand what they are doing to business owners. They just don't know or care. Their cosy jobs and pensions are safe. These aren't city fat cats they're attacking. It's normal, ordinary, decent men and women who are trying to find their way and provide for their families. These changes WILL result in less investment, fewer pay rises, and a weaker economy. That impacts EVERYONE. Tax is ALREADY punishing. What's Labour's response? Hike it up even further. I listen to them in Parliament - Reeves, Reynolds and the other drones. It's worse up close. They don't know what they are talking about. Honestly, it's so bad. I challenge Reeves/Reynolds to run a small business for just one week, in this climate. Let's see how they get on making these decisions. They can't deceive the cold hard numbers. We should be hacking tax down - right across the board. Income, dividend, corporation. Business is all about incentives. The five golden rules - what's in it for me? Anyone who thinks otherwise is deluded. What does Government need to do for business? Slash tax, cut burdensome regulation and get the hell out of our way.

We should be slashing corporation tax, doubling the VAT threshold, increasing personal allowances, abolishing business rates for high street small firms, reducing national insurance contributions, cutting tax on salary/dividends and PLENTY more. Here's a mad idea - reward hard work, and people might do more of it... It's all about incentives. It really isn't complicated. I sit in Parliament listening to Reeves and Labour MPs - honestly, they have NO idea what generates economic growth. It isn't more regulation, it isn't more quangos, it isn't MORE Government. It's individuals, and it's bloody hard work. Design the system around making that work pay, and we'll end up collecting far more tax. SIMPLE! Stop supporting the indolent and start fostering the productive. Make corporation tax the lowest in Europe. Go for it, undercut them. We should be ruthlessly competitive. This Government's plan? Slapping an enormous tax on employment. What do these fools think will happen? Honestly. If ANY of them had any real business experience, they might understand the consequences of their actions. I've built businesses, created jobs, invested in passionate young people. I've been there and done it. It hurts, and it can be very challenging indeed. We need a Government that even vaguely understands it. This one certainly does not.