GIFT SHOP THAT’LL PAY HIGHER RATES THAN HARRODS

Money Mail, March 22

I GAVE up my successful chocolate workshop after drowning in horrendous rates five years. I had to pay 20 pc of turnover, despite my very low profits. It’s near impossible to run a small business that makes money. L. L, Reigate, Surrey. OUR greedy system will suck every last drop from the UK’s once-great High Street. We have to embrace that online shopping is now a powerful alternative, but make it a level playing field on all business taxes. A. A, London. MASSIVE chain stores don’t pay their fair share of tax — it’s once again the small ones who pay. This is shoving many shops out of business, destroying our High Streets and likely contributing to shop owners’ poor health. I. B, Sudbury, Suffolk. THE problems were obvious when Amazon started selling books and bookshops struggled. Since then, Amazon has started to sell practically everything, and now almost all retail businesses are struggling. T. O, London. POLITICIANS seem to be continuing the drive towards removing the nation of shopkeepers (and tradesmen) from our culture, towards large multinationals which prefer to pay their operating taxes elsewhere. What’s in it for our politicians, then? F. F, St Albans, Herts. ANY fool can work out it’s the small, independent retailers that employ many local people, give every High Street a unique character and pay the going rate of tax, with owners spending the profits locally. A. A, London. SMALL companies will go out of business before the slow-moving, bureaucratic government puts it right. The whole rates system is out-of-date and needs scrapping. T. G., Coventry.