27 Jul NEWS
HEYBURN BENNETT NEWS AND VIEWS – JULY 2022
Hello everybody. We hope you are all well.
Well a month is a long time in politics. We now know that come September 5th we will have a new Prime Minister. Whether it be Liz Truss or Rishi Sunak, it is hoped that sensible decisions will made regarding the economy, tax and cost of living crisis. Will the corporation tax increase due from next April be abolished? This is an interesting issue – one train of thought is that corporation tax rates should be kept low, which will encourage new business and ultimately collect a higher volume of tax on increased profits nationally. The other viewpoint is that by increasing corporation tax for the bigger, more profitable businesses, their infrastructure is such that it would be logistically difficult for them to relocate from the UK.
It is too easy just to say cut taxes on x or y, as it would then have to be collected elsewhere. The prime example is fuel taxes. However, if the price of fuel does continue to increase, there is arguably a case for reducing the rate of VAT.
Enough of politics, let’s focus on good news. A great achievement for the England Lionesses to reach the final of Euro 2022. Dave and Karen had the fortune of recently attending a conference in which one of the speakers was Fara Williams MBE, the most capped England player ever. During her early football career, she was homeless for 6 years, so her journey has been an inspiration for us all.
Also good news is that finally the number of Covid cases has started to fall. It rose following the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee at the start of June, obviously because people were socialising more, but in the week to 20 July, cases were shown as reducing. Estimates are that almost 80% of us in England have had Covid since early 2020, so hopefully resistance is now high and the pandemic will soon be a thing of the past.
As for business news, we are effectively in limbo until we have a new Prime Minister. One thing those of you that are employed will have noticed is that your net pay went up by £30 in July. This is because the starting rate of employee’s NI increased from £823 to £1,048 per month from July.
That’s it for July. If you are going on holiday have a great time – you deserve it!
Stay safe and well.
Mark, Dave and the team.