CBI Sets Out UK Corporation Tax Roadmap

by Robert Lee, Tax-News.com, London

17 December 2015

The Confederation of British Industry (CBI) has published recommendations on how the UK Government can develop a corporation tax regime that supports productive investment and innovation.

The CBI has released "Race to the top: developing a Corporation Tax regime to support sustainable growth," the third policy paper in its Comprehensive Business Tax Roadmap series. According to the paper, "a world-class corporation tax regime is an essential prerequisite to addressing broader economic objectives. First, it contributes revenues to fund the public services and critical infrastructure that a modern economy demands. Second, it helps to drive the investment and innovation needed to sustain growth and deliver prosperity for all."

The CBI said that the Government should maintain the structure of existing capital allowances and keep the level of the UK's Writing Down Allowances competitive relative to other nations. It recommended that the capital allowances regime be broadened to cover structures and associated buildings, and that the effectiveness of Enhanced Capital Allowances be improved.

"The main explanation behind the UK's lack of international competitiveness on capital allowances is that some significant areas of expenditure remain arbitrarily excluded from taxable profit," the report stressed.

To stimulate innovation, the CBI urged that the attractiveness of incentives such as the Research and Development (R&D) Expenditure Credit be maintained, and that the UK's R&D innovation incentives cover the full range of R&D activity. In addition, it said the Government should ensure that the benefits of R&D tax incentives can be accessed by a range of businesses and allow smaller firms below tax thresholds to benefit from the R&D tax credit as they innovate. Finally, the Government should tackle other barriers to innovation by smaller and medium-sized firms, including the costs of hiring highly skilled staff, it said.

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