Small Businesses Brush Off VAT Rise

Leading up to the VAT increase in the UK, more than a few experts (and poll participants) indicated that it would have serious detrimental effects on small businesses.  Fortunately, that doesn’t appear to have been the case, as the results of a new survey show small business owners haven’t seen much change.

A Crimson Business article based on research conducted by Intuit UK stated, "Even when considering all the associated costs including administration and loss of revenue, almost 70% of small business owners claimed the VAT rise had cost them less than 350.  Furthermore, when asked how much time they spent dealing with the change, 46% of small firms estimated they spent less than five hours managing the increase."

That doesn’t sound too bad, since most businesses should be able to spare that much time and money.  What might be considered a blanket finding was even more encouraging, though.

The Crimson Business article declared, "Two thirds (67%) of small firms surveyed by financial management software provider, Intuit, confirmed that overall, the VAT increase has had no impact on their business."

So barring some big surprise in the next month or two (and we can’t imagine that everyone forgot a decimal point or something like that), it looks like the average small business will get by just fine despite the increase.

That should count as a pleasant surprise for everyone who expected things to take a turn for the worse.