Wiggo

Entrepreneurs, the UK government has halved BADR to £500k, on top of their previous 80% increase of the tax rate in the autumn budget. The relief may as well be scrapped. They’ve introduced a new Founders Relief £10m at 10% which sounds great and it initially sounds like the original entrepreneurs relief…. Expect this new relief comes with crazy conditions to qualify. A startup founder starting today would need to trust that the government won’t change the rules or relief within the next 5 years as that’s the minimum time to qualify, among other nonsensical rules. Would you trust them? The headline sounds good. The reality is I think very few new startup founders will be too incentivised by that once they learn the criteria to qualify. It has been designed in a way that I doubt many businesses would ever qualify. I don’t think they want founders to get rich. For me this budget hasn’t shifted the strong likelihood that I will leave the UK and build elsewhere. I think this government is totally out of touch and out of ideas that are workable. I believe they’re too focussed on pleasing the unproductive in society and playing into the hands of that anti-wealth narrative.

I doubt many founders will be incentivised to start a business in the UK after they've read the checklist of criteria to qualify. And that assumes they trust the government to not change the rules or relief threshold. This is the government who recently imposed an 80% tax increase on BADR for entrepreneurs selling their business and today has cut that relief allowance in half to just £500k. I hope the free press will keep a watchful eye on which companies and founders who qualify under this scheme, especially around the time it comes into force. Is this government just out of touch with reality or is this designed for a very small group of people known to the policy creators? Or something else? I believe this government in particular do not want people to become wealthy, despite the headline.