Local MP David Mundell has today welcomed a bold set of tax cuts for businesses and employers in Dumfriesshire, Clydesdale and Tweeddale, announced by the Chancellor in this year’s Budget.
A new Employment Allowance will take £2,000 off the National Insurance bill of every employer – open to businesses, charities and community amateur sports clubs. This will help 70,000 employers in Scotland, taking 35,000 out of having to pay any tax on jobs at all.
Employers will be able to hire one extra person on £22,400 a year, or four people working full time on the minimum wage, without paying any National Insurance.
A further corporation tax cut to 20 per cent in April 2015 will see the UK having the lowest corporation tax rate in the G20, which sends a clear signal that Britain is open for business.
Stamp Duty on shares in companies quoted on growth markets like AIM and the ISDX Growth Market has also been abolished. This will benefit around 1,000 UK quoted companies – a transaction tax removed here as 11 EU countries are looking to introduce a sweeping financial transaction tax.
Mr Mundell commented: ‘This is much needed news for businesses locally who are having to cope with a tough economic climate but are still keen to expand and provide local employment. The Employment Allowance will make it easier and cheaper for small businesses to hire people – an employer could hire four people working full time on the minimum wage without paying any National Insurance.
‘These and the other business measures in the Budget are exactly what businesses need to expand and to grow’.