Scottish Business Groups Protest Darling Tax Changes

by Jason Gorringe, Tax-News.com, London

16 October 2007

According to reports in the UK media, several Scottish business organisations are uniting, in parallel with their British counterparts, to oppose the tax changes put forward by Chancellor Alistair Darling in last week's Pre-Budget Report.

The organisations in question are: CBI Scotland, the Institute of Directors Scotland, the Scottish Chambers of Commerce, the Federation of Small Businesses Scotland, Scottish Financial Enterprise and the Scottish Council for Development and Industry.

The Scotsman newspaper revealed that, the organisations plan to maintain an "open channel of communication" with regard to formulating a plan of action in response to the Chancellor's announcement.

Scotland is expected to be significantly adversely affected by Darling's capital gains tax and taper relief changes, owing to the high proportion of SMEs in the country, the Scotsman suggested.

Meanwhile, south of the border, UK business bodies, the CBI, Institute of Directors, British Chambers of Commerce and the Federation of Small Businesses have also joined forces to respond to the recently announced tax changes, and have written a joint letter to the Chancellor outlining their objections, and suggesting that the proposals will set back economic growth.

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