SFA urges more ‘ambitious’ budget

The Small Firms Association (SFA) has urged the Government to be more “ambitious” in its spending approach, in the October budget, by increasing capital expenditure to 4% of GDP.

In its pre-Budget submission — published this morning — the lobby group has warned that Ireland’s economic growth cannot be taken for granted and has challenged the Government to deliver on its commitment to ending what it calls “discrimination” against the self-employed.

The SFA wants the self-employed earned income tax credit increased to €1,650 — equal to the PAYE tax credit — in Budget 2018. It also wants a share-based remuneration scheme for small firm employees introduced, in order to help staff retention and productivity levels, and the lifetime limit for capital gains tax (CGT) entrepreneur relief increased to €15m.