No Credit, More Tax - That's the Way Forward, Britain!

Oh it would be too simple to collect the tax, or even just the interest, owed by such big firms as Goldman Sachs.

No, that would be too easy, wouldn't it? The interest lost alone is £millions. It's actually harder to get them to pay, particularly when it seems such companies have cosy relationships with the senior HMRC men. Nope, it's actually harder to go and audit the thousands of small firms who are working their hardest to make ends meet and contribute to British business, employing and managing the bulk of the workforce and already paying disproportionally higher taxes than larger companies.

These small firms don't have tiers of accountants, big auditors or lawyers to negotiate 'tax mitigation' or plain buy the HMRC off them. These companies are largely honest, pay their way and ask only that bureaucracy and red tape are reduced as much as possible to stimulate an already dead economy.

But nope, the HMRC doesn't see it that way. These small firms represent easy money as it is likely that many of them don't have the time or resources to keep their books entirely up to date with all the backing paperwork. And they pay, unlike the big boys who argue the toss or plead technicalities or hide IP assets in tax havens, or simply threaten to move their tax headquarters elsewhere.

Small firms are the backbone of this trading nation and rather than pick on them, the HMRC should be helping them relieve the burdens. A fair tax system with less red tape should the simple way forward and let these firms focus on what they should be doing - creating some wealth for the economy.

I dare say I will get it in the ear from the whinging HMRC people who claim they are over-worked, underpaid and under trained but I say we are in the same place in small business, life is no easier down here as a small business. And it's about to become harder.

It's great to see the Government bleat about it but isn't this their system? After a financial disaster of Depressional proportions, who gets the blunt end of the sword? Small businesses who get squeezed on credit and investment money, get higher taxes and red tape, tougher employment laws and now the merciless scrutiny from the taxman searching for pennies when they could be extracting gold from the big boys.

Welcome to Entrepreneurial Britain. This is the way to really get the economy back on its feet.