Member

Different categories of businesses will be affected differently. In the case of the sole trader, there is no distinction between the business and the employer, including the sole proprietor, who employs others—and many do. There are 198,000 sole proprietors who are also employers, out of around 3.1 million—56% of the total. How many of them will see their payroll tax go up? To what extent will the employment allowance off-set some of the cost and by how much? Given the significant and disproportionate costs of compliance on small businesses, how will they cope and will they be given help towards compliance and accessing the employment allowance? Accountancy, legal and advice fees will also take a hit, the charges that small businesses will pay for existing services from professional people will go up and therefore the whole payroll overhead will go up. This does not take into account the other costs implied in the Budget.