I admit it. I’m tired and frustrated with thugs and gangsters.
Not ones that directly cause physical arm, thank goodness!
But I am tired, as a small business owner and
employer, of always having to swim upstream against a self-evidently
stupid state. Frustrated because no-one, either in Government or who wants to
be in Government, ever seems to want to challenge the state’s vested
self-interest.
Of course, you will say – well go and do something else instead.
Put a stop to your nearly 40-years in business. Close it down. Retire.
I’m tempted to do that. But not before I again explain to my
long-suffering readers, many of whom are business people, or who at the
very least know that without business people, why the bloated British
state would burst open and wither like a ridiculous party balloon.
Everyone recognises – now and after appalling damage has been done
– the role of a self-serving and unaccountable state in the Post Office
scandal, an entity wholly-owned by the Government.
Its ongoing denial of its own mistakes and efforts to bully and
crush innocent sub-postmasters (i.e. small businesspeople) is certainly one of
the greatest injustices that the state has inflicted on its citizens in recent
years.
My own experience of a monolithic, defensive and arrogant state
(funded by us taxpayers in case we forget) is only slightly less traumatic.
As a result of the last round of business rates revaluations, my
warehouse business faces a massive hike in its costs base – almost overnight.
It does this because the Valuation Office Agency
(VOA) lazily assumes that my operation is comparable to that of a giant
Amazon warehouse, or similar.
Therefore, as of this month, business rates will represent
12% of my annual sales turnover, or a quarter of my yearly wage bill! I feel
like I’m working to feed the bloated, unaccountable, and inefficient state
system at the cost of myself and prospective employees.
I won’t repeat my thoughts as to why the whole damn system is
unfair and is perversely taxing inputs and not business outputs. Instead, let
me take you through my thoughts on the maze of state-backed unfairness when I
decided to appeal against this revaluation.
Firstly, what gives Government agencies, such as the
VOA, the right to over-charge or over-assess a legitimate business, and
then expect that business to have to appeal at their own cost, without recourse
to compensation or expenses?
Secondly, I believe that their excessive over-valuation of
my, and other business premises, to be a vexatious attempt to bully
businesses into paying-up. Business Rates Valuations are supposed to represent
the open-market rent payable by the business in question, but the
VOA ignores that basic principle.
Yet, the VOA, having conducted the most superficial
desktop comparison – no site visits to ascertain exactly what we do – expects
us to gather our resources and appeal.
In short, this is pure gangsterism, with all the heavy
weaponry held by the state and trained on us.
The process itself is rigged. It allows just ONE chance to appeal
the valuation – if you or your agent are unsuccessful, you will have to wait
until the next valuation period in three or four-years’ time.
And if you are successful, then much of the money saved is eaten
away by your agents’ fees. They don’t come cheap.
Furthermore, the state never likes to lose. There is a feeling
around that if an appeal is successful and the state has lost out, then the
business will be targeted even more sternly during the next valuation
period.
Such unreasonable behaviour is systemic across the state.
As I was writing this column, I saw that Suffolk Chamber of
Commerce had issued a report into R&D Tax Reliefs.
In this case, it looks as if it’s His Majesty’s Revenue &
Customs (HMRC) that is doing the bullying.
The report identifies that the lack of knowledgeable experts at
the HMRC, plus the imposition of an overly strict compliance regime, is
causing many legitimate companies’ most recent claims to be delayed and/or
refused, with others fearful that previously successful claims from previous
years might now be challenged.
Understandably, 46% of respondents to a Chamber survey are now
deterred from making future claims based on their latest experience.
Sounds all too familiar to me. The state wants to squeeze money
from us and make it as forbidding and painful as possible to argue for
something fairer and sustainable.
And let’s not forget the army of self-employed citizens currently
being threatened by HMRC with IR35 rules as to how how they run their
businesses, with many having to fend-off costly and time-consuming
retrospective claims for tax.
What will all those faceless and useless bureaucrats do when there are no businesses left to bully? I hate to think.
Perhaps they’ll come after
you next?
First published in the www.suffolkfreepress.co.uk on Thursday, 4th April 2024.