Nigel Farage: VAT threshold should be raised
Reform UK’s Nigel Farage has hit out at suggestions that the VAT threshold for businesses should be lowered from its £90,000 threshold.
Reports have suggested that Chancellor Rachel Reeves could lower the threshold at which businesses must be registered for VAT to £30,000 in a phased approach, a policy backed by several think tank wonks from across the political spectrum.
But Farage has said that the threshold should be higher to support growth among small businesses and allow them to hire more staff.
“The VAT threshold is far too low,” Farage said, without clarifying at what level he would set the threshold.
He also told CityAM: “There are so many one or two-man bands that find themselves literally on that cusp. That’s why the argument for increasing the threshold makes sense.
“If you are operating a one or two-man band, you can understand you might [stay] around the edge of where that threshold is.
“It’s a damn nuisance to a large number of people.”
He said the threshold should be raised to around £160,000 to £180,000.
There have been conflicting reports on whether Reeves could raise or lower the threshold.
The Daily Mail has reported that Reeves could bring the threshold down while an earlier report in the summer suggested the VAT threshold could be increased in a pro-growth reform, which was judged positively by the fiscal watchdog when Jeremy Hunt was Chancellor.
Farage takes on big state bodies
Farage also hit out at the suggested “exit tax”, which would levy capital gains taxes on entrepreneurs and business owners’ assets if they left the country, and appeared to criticise the prevalence of private equity across the UK, adding that he wanted to see a boost in UK capital markets.
He indicated he would look to remove the stamp duty on shares as he said the UK had to “compete against other stock exchanges”.
During the event in London on Monday, Farage made his strongest appeal yet to small business owners as he said he would set up a work group to stop bigger businesses having sole influence on governments.
Farage said successive governments “only listen” to big businesses and were effective in advancing their own interests through intensive lobbying efforts.
“It’s the big businesses that take you to Wimbledon,” Farage told an audience of small business owners. “It’s the big businesses that take people out for dinner. When you think about it, that’s remarkable.”
The Reform leader lashed out at IR35 rules for off-payroll working, introduced under the previous Conservative government, and at Labour’s workers’ rights reforms set to hit company directors across the country.
Farage did not offer any concrete policy proposals and said he would make fresh announcements before the next General Election.
But he spared attacks for several independent institutions including the Financial Conduct Authority and the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR), which Farage questioned whether it had served a “useful purpose” in recent years.
The event came as Tory supporter Lord Anthony Bamford, the billionaire of JCB Excavators, gave Reform a £200,000 donation.
JCB said in a statement it was backing both the Conservatives and Reform because the two parties “believe in small business”.
It is the first official donation by JCB to Reform, with the company having been one of few sponsors at its party conference in September.
Farage thanked Lord Bamford for the donation during the event on Monday.