UK rewrites corporate tax to boost investment

A waiter at the Flying Horse pub in London, November 19, 2014

Written by Kate Holton

LONDON (Reuters) – British Finance Minister Rishi Sunak revised corporate tax rates on Wednesday and corporate tax cuts in the retail and hospitality sector, hardest hit by the pandemic, while backing away from a planned annual increase while encouraging investment in green property.

Presenting his budget to Parliament, Sunak said he could not scrap a tax that collects 25 billion pounds ($34 billion) a year, but would try to ease the burden on businesses such as pubs, stores, restaurants, gyms, cinemas and shopping centres. emptiness.

Businesses are taxed on commercial premises based on property value, a system that business owners have long claimed gives an unfair cost advantage to online retailers like Amazon.

Sunak said that under the new system, property appraisals will be reviewed every three years instead of every five years, the business tax multiplier for the second year will be frozen, and there will be a 50% discount for one year for businesses in retail, hospitality and leisure.

(Bur David Milliken and Kate Holton)