BizSale Small Business Blog. Small businesses for sale.

From next April, small business owners of holiday homes will not be able to use their properties to offset losses made on their investment or defer capital gains tax payments.

Hidden in the small print of the Budget, and not actually mentioned in the Chancellor’s speech, the decision has outraged second home owners across the UK.

Ross Elder, managing director of holidaylettings.co.uk, said that the existing rules on offsetting losses on holiday properties These rules have served to encourage greater use of holiday properties, rather than sit empty, and in turn boosted UK tourism and supported local economies. For the home to qualify as a ‘holiday property’, it needs to be fully furnished, and run as a commercial business. It must also be let for at least 70 days in a year and available to the public to rent for a total of 140 days of the year.

The rule meant that for those people facing hefty capital gains tax bills, investing in holiday homes was a popular option. There is now every likelihood that the extra tax bill on property owners will have the effect of severely raising prices for UK holidaymakers next year.

Toby Ryland, senior tax partner at Blick Rothenberg, agrees: “It’s going to make letting a second home as a holiday let less attractive. It will restrict availability and potentially push up the cost of renting a holiday home.”

At least the change in tax legislation won’t be retrospective, so the capital gains tax will not need to be paid by existing owners of holiday properties until they sell it.

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If you have been suffering from cash flow problems during this credit crunch/recession then you may have tried to gain a loan from your bank under the Enterprise Finance Guarantee (EFG) scheme, which started in January.

Don’t worry if the bank manager rejected your request – he needs to adjust to the idea of providing loans to keep businesses ticking over, under the EFG scheme.

Where bank managers would normally be asked to provide a loan for a small business to expand, during an economic downturn a business’ first priority is to survive!

Under the scheme, businesses with revenues of less than £25m can take out a loan of up to £1m for a maximum of ten years, of which the Government is guaranteeing 75% of the value.

A mere 8% of 4000 small businesses have been able, so far, to utilise the scheme.

A source from the Department for Business, Enterprise and regulatory Reform has reportedly said they are monitoring usage of the scheme at banks to make sure it is running smoothly.

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The media is full of scare stories about the impending Credit Crunch and the impact that it is likely to have on small business. NFEA (National Federation of Enterprise Agencies) is taking action on this issue with the launch of a dedicated Credit Crunch Week – to prepare current and future small business owners for any consequences this economic climate is likely to have on their business.
Running from Monday 28 April to Friday 2 May, NFEA members across England will provide a range of events focused on giving small businesses the skills they need to survive and thrive in a more hostile environment than that to which they are accustomed.
New and prospective small business owners will be able to learn how to ride the storm and manage their business effectively whatever the future brings, in a range of tailored events including seminars, workshops and surgeries as well as the opportunity for one to one independent, professional financial advice.
Commenting on the launch of this dedicated activity, NFEA Chief Executive George Derbyshire has said: “We are not criticising the Government or the banks or big business – but we know from talking to small businesses that they are worried about what they are reading and hearing, and we know that many entrepreneurs, particularly those who have started businesses in recent years, have not had the experience of managing their business through a downturn.”
More information on the dedicated week of events will appear on www.nfea.com in the lead up to the week of events and details will also be promoted locally by NFEA enterprise agencies. For those individuals not able to attend an event in person, online business advisors will also be answering specific Credit Crunch related queries on the free and confidential Small Business Advice Service website, www.smallbusinessadvice.org.uk.

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Don’t think that Alistair’s partial u-turn on CGT means that small businesses are being treated well by this government.

In each of the last three budgets, the government has steadily added to the tax burden of small businesses, and lightened the load on larger corporations. Take a look at this illustration:

Profit (net and pre-tax): £11,000

Fixed assets brought forward: £6,500

Depreciation at: £1,625

In 2010, the corporation tax for this business will be: £2,228

Compared to their corporation tax total in 2005 of: £184

Wow! That is an increase of over 1000 percent!

If you applied a similar tax calculation for a business 1000x larger, you would see that their tax bill actuall REDUCES by over 2% over the same time period. See the actual figures over at Figurewizard.com (thanks Joe for that).

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News, views, tips and advice from the publishers of BizSale, the UK’s leading listing of small businesses for sale.

On the back of many requests from our BizSale subscribers, we finally got around to launching our business blog. So hello everyone!

We decided on using Wordpress as the platform, as it is the most popular and seems to have many useful plug-ins. Anyone have experience of the various blogging platforms? Did we make the right choice?

Anyway, back on topic, we have a loads of resources, tips and advice to all of you who are looking to sell or buy a small business. From capital gains tax, to deal negotiation and industry briefs the range of relevant material is vast.

The aim is to condense the most pertinent and useful information into bite-size chunks. So keep coming back and don’t feel shy about leaving comments! Talk soon.

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