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George Osborne is delivering his Budget speech Wednesday of this week. It will be interesting to see if his plea for ideas to help smaller businesses has received a sympathetic ear. Here’s what a number of organisations have requested:

British Chambers of Commerce

The BCC have made three recommendations:

  1. A £100m scheme to pay businesses £1,000 if they hire long term unemployed young people or take on an apprentice.
  2. A two-year extension to the Apprenticeship Grant for Employers Scheme.
  3. Increasing the tax relief available to investors using the Enterprise Investment Scheme, from 30% to 50%, for investors in businesses run by the under 24s.

Forum of Private Business

The FPB has appealed for help to support firms with rising costs. In particular:

  1. A fundamental review of business rates.
  2. Phasing out VAT on the fuel duty element of the pump price.
  3. Measures to speed up the movement of cash between businesses to counter late payment.
  4. The introduction of an export guarantee scheme.

Federation of Small Businesses

The FSB has requested a number of support projects to help smaller businesses:

  1. Set the Minimum Wage rates for a five year period and change the rate changes to the beginning of the tax year (April) rather than October. This would assist firms with formulating longer term planning objectives.
  2. The Chancellor is urged to fund new support schemes through the Community Development Finance Institutions – providing a source of funding when access to bank finance is not available.

Confederation of British Industry

The CBI has recommended:

  1. Incentives to invest in energy generation.
  2. Extending the Annual Investment Allowance for small firms beyond 2015. The present 100% tax allowance is due to end 31 December 2015.
  3. Introduce a new capital allowance for structures and buildings.
  4. A freeze on Air Passenger Duty.

Institute of Directors

The IoD has promoted the idea that no-one should pay more than 50% of their income in taxation. Their contention is that all direct taxes – income tax, employees’ National Insurance, and council tax – should be capped at 50% of income.

It will be interesting to see if any of these proposals are included in the Budget…