Finance Bill

I was not talking about all service companies; I was talking specifically about the business services sector. I went on to say that more than half the service companies in hotel and catering and more than half the companies in retails invest, and do so consistently. A small catering company, for instance, that makes £100,000 profits and invests £30,000 in new kitchen equipment, will pay about £2,000 less tax in the first year of the new annual investment allowance than it would do without the changes in the Budget. A self-employed builder who invests £4,000 to start up a business and earns £30,000 in the first year, will pay about £1,200 less tax and national insurance. The hon. Member for Fareham, whose concerns were echoed by his hon. Friend the Member for South-West Hertfordshire (Mr. Gauke), repeated the allegation that the package of changes will make the system more complex for small businesses, but the changes to the small companies rate in clause 3 do not make any difference to the level of complexity. The annual investment allowance, in fact, makes tax simpler for small businesses. If the hon. Member for Fareham will not take it from me, perhaps he will take it from the chairman of the tax committee of the Federation of Small Businesses, Simon Sweetman, who said:"““The Annual Investment Allowance…should allow what is in effect free depreciation for small businesses on plant and machinery, and has the added benefit of being a simplification.””"