the times | Monday February 21 2022 41Business
PETER MARSHALL/ALAMY LIVE NEWSNew taxes cost business extra £50bn
New taxes brought in over the past
decade have cost British businesses
more than £50 billion and they face
more charges in the coming years.
Eight new taxes have been intro-
duced since 2011, including the soft
drinks industry levy, dubbed the “sugar
tax”, and the apprenticeship levy.
The taxman’s biggest money-maker
has been the bank levy, a tax on UK
banks requiring them to pay over and
above normal corporation tax. Since its
introduction in 2011, it has yielded
£24.7 billion for the Treasury, according
to research by Thomson Reuters.
The banks have also had to pay out
an extra £8.2 billion because of the bank
surcharge, an additional 8 per cent tax
on their profits.
The apprenticeship levy has generat-
ed £10.7 billion. The diverted profits taxhas been the least lucrative, netting
only £514 million.
In total, HM Revenue & Customs has
collected £50.5 billion from the new
taxes, Thomson Reuters calculated,
including the £7.2 billion generated in- The sugar tax, introduced in 2018,
cost businesses £300 million last year.
“Adding new taxes and placing a
heavy burden on businesses comes at a
difficult time for those still recovering
from the economic impact of the pan-
demic,” Jas Sandhu Dade, of Thomson
Reuters, said.
She added: “These new taxes have
proven themselves to be a successful
way to bring in billions of pounds in a
relatively short space of time.”
A new tax, the health and social care
levy, is due to be introduced next year.
It is forecast to raise £17 billion a year, of
which about £8.5 billion is likely to be
borne directly by businesses, with the
rest paid by employees. An increase in
corporation tax rates in 2023 is predict-
ed to yield a further £12 billion for the
Treasury.
Many of the new taxes introduced
over the past decade were the result of
the government trying to balance the
books after the financial crisis.
Thomson Reuters speculated that
the pandemic, which is estimated to
have cost the government as much as
£400 billion, might “result in a similar
demand for new sources of tax”.
Sandhu Dade said that the extra
taxes will “add considerable financial
and compliance stresses” to businesses
and individuals. “More new taxes
means more complexity and therefore
added risks of a company paying the
wrong level of tax,” she said. “It is im-
portant businesses take the time to
consider ways to ensure they manage
their compliance requirements.”Tom HowardJunior market leaves Europe in the shade
A string of high-profile listings on
London’s Alternative Investment
Market has resulted in the index
generating more than half of all funds
raised on European junior and growth
stock markets last year.
According to research by the
accountancy firm UHY Hacker Young,
£9.5 billion was raised on the UK’s
secondary, more lightly regulated stock
exchange thanks to a boom in large
fundraisings, while other Europeangrowth markets raised £8.5 billion as a
whole. UHY Hacker Young said that
the findings showed Aim has “solidified
its reputation as the best junior stock
market to float on in Europe” amid
improvements in regulation, with com-
panies on the index having to comply
with a corporate governance code
aimed at providing greater investor
protection.
Dan Hutson, partner at UHY Hacker
Young, said: “Aim has become a force to
be reckoned with in the last decade, far
outstripping the efforts of its Europeancounterparts. The regulation put in
place in recent years has allowed Aim
to grow into the place to list and invest.”
That has increased Aim’s liquidity, he
added, with the average value of daily
trading in Aim shares surging 47 per
cent to more than £480,000 in 2020-21,
from about £329,000 the year before.
While investors have been flocking
to Aim, the Paris Alternext market
raised only 5 per cent of the European
total with £827 million last year and the
Borsa Italiana only 4 per cent of the
total with £740 million.Jessica Newmanfear that they would have to pay for remedial work on their leasehold properties