Final Push Announced For “Survive and Succeed” Campaign

“Survive and Succeed”, the campaign against the Dividend Tax, is getting closer to its target of 100,000 petition signatures – but needs one last push to reach its goal before the February 24th deadline.

From April 2016, all limited company owners taking dividends will have to pay an extra 7.5% tax. This is on top of the 20% tax they already pay through corporation tax, making the basic rate of tax 27%.

Campaign founder Serena Humphrey of Nottingham’s The F Word believes that the proposed tax punishes SMEs – the lifeblood of the UK economy – unfairly: “Everything is stacked against SMEs, and being forced to pay the Dividend Tax could mean having to choose between paying into a pension scheme or having a marketing budget next year. The government simply does not understand how difficult it is for smaller businesses, and this tax seems to run counter to the rhetoric of economic growth. It feels indiscriminate. Why punish job creators?

“The government clearly views smaller businesses as an easy touch,” says Humphrey.

“They know that it would be very difficult to impose a similar tax on larger companies, and that’s why they’re doing this.”

The “Survive and Succeed” campaign was set up to give small businesses a voice, which Humphrey believes has been lacking: “Who has, or is, the voice of small business? Millions of businesses are affected by this tax, but they don’t have a voice. ‘Survive and Succeed’ gives them that voice.”

The petition has already attracted the support of a significant number of East Midlands businesses, and campaigners are hoping that more will follow.

As the deadline approaches, Humphrey and her supporters are calling upon small business owners to stand up and make their voices heard: “The campaign has done well but I can’t believe that it’s not attracted half a million signatures, not just 50,000. With only 9 days to go we need an extra push to take it over the line,” says Tim Glynn, CEO of Adodo Consultancy Services and founder of UKHangoutCommunity. “The key question is how do we engage people? Businesses should be getting angry. How can people let the government take more tax from them without a fight?”

“This isn’t about Fat Cats sitting in ivory towers. It can be the difference between a small but ambitious firm investing in marketing or R&D, training their teams and growing their organisation. Growth leads to higher returns for the treasury. This measure is short-sighted at best and at worst, it is destructive. The next generation are going to weigh risk vs reward and this does not inspire anyone to take the plunge – quite the opposite.”

You can add your name to the petition here.