Tories To Put UK Business Tax Cuts First

by Jason Gorringe, Tax-News.com, London

05 April 2006

George Osborne, Shadow Chancellor, has suggested that a future Conservative government would put tax cuts for business at the top of its political agenda.

In a speech at the annual conference of the British Chambers of Commerce, Mr Osborne, who turns just 35 next month, accused the current Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown of creating the largest tax burden in history, and argued that there was a strong case for cutting business taxes before other taxes.

"I acknowledge that there is a strong argument for cutting business taxes first - for business taxes are in reality taxes on research, taxes on investment, taxes on wealth creation and taxes on jobs," he told the conference.

Mr Osborne was careful to toe the party line and held back from making specific pledges that a future Tory government may struggle to keep.

However, he expressed confidence that an independent tax reform commission set up by the Tories would "identify a path we can take towards a simpler, fairer and flatter tax system".

“Tax law has doubled under this Chancellor. We now rank an appalling 67th in the world for the simplicity of our tax code,” Mr Osborne remarked.

The Shadow Chancellor also claimed that the trust that business and the public initially had in Brown's economic management has now evaporated, and suggested that more people are beginning to rate the Conservatives' economic policies as credible.

“When I speak to business audiences there is much greater scepticism of the record of the Government. The lead Gordon Brown had on economic competence has disappeared now and we are level pegging," he stated.

Mr Osborne's speech was well received by the BCC, with director-general, David Frost, lamenting the fact that business has become "an easy target" for a revenue hungry government.

"Employers pay more than their fair share in taxes. In global terms, ten years ago we had the 9th lowest corporation tax rate, today we have slipped to the 16th lowest," Mr Frost observed.

"While many countries are lowering their tax rates in recent years we have seen our overall tax take increase," he added.

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