Taxing entrepreneurs will harm the economy
SIR – I would like to thank Matthew Lynn for his article in support of entrepreneurs (“Even if taxes must rise, a raid on entrepreneurship is madness”, Business, November 5).
Britain is the envy of Europe for the quantity and quality of its start-ups, particularly in science and technology. Brave men and women who embark on the entrepreneurial journey take many personal and financial risks. They generate jobs and wealth for the whole country. They deserve to be rewarded, not punished through taxation.
The entrepreneurs’ tax relief was introduced by Gordon Brown in 2008, and was aimed at encouraging people to create new businesses. The upper limit was increased by the Coalition government, reaching £10million. However, in 2020, before the pandemic, the then chancellor Rishi Sunak decided to slash this tax break for entrepreneurs by 90 per cent. Peyman Mestchian
London W1
sir – Juliet Samuel says the Government will repeat George Osborne’s mistakes by cutting spending on infrastructure (Comment, November 5). However, it is important to ask why it is funding this in the first place. Government is notoriously bad at getting value for money and managing large-scale projects, and resources are wasted by the inevitable stop-start, slim-down, scale-up routine that happens with each one.
The country needs new railways and nuclear power stations. The Government should turn each into an investment zone, giving the developer and operator 50 years of zero corporation tax and other tax reductions to make it enticing for the private sector to build and operate the projects at no risk to the taxpayer.
Provided the Civil Service is not allowed to strangle these with red tape, we could actually see a dramatic increase in infrastructure projects at a lower cost to the taxpayer. Some may become fixated on the reduced level of tax being paid but the prize is that these long-term projects come into being quickly and are no longer subject to the whims of politicians. Alastair Macmillan
Port Glasgow, Renfrewshire