Speed Read: Privately owned entrepreneurial businesses, along with many of us, will be watching election 2010 intently. Key Labour proposals include: raising the rate of NIC effective from April 2011; widening share ownership schemes; increasing capital allowances; continuing the Time to Pay scheme. Key Conservative proposals include: raising the IHT threshold to £1 million; cutting NICs for the first ten employees of a new business; cutting the headline corporation tax to 25% (from 28%) and the small companies rate to 20%, funded by reducing complex reliefs and allowances. Key Liberal Democrat proposals include: taxing capital gains at the same rate as income; a £10K tax threshold for income tax; and tax relief on pensions only at the basic rate.
