Taxation group urges Government to use Budget to support SMEs

The Irish Taxation Institute (ITI) has called on Government to introduce measures in the forthcoming Budget to support the growth of indigenous Irish companies and boost job creation.

Speaking ahead of today’s Cabinet meeting on Budget 2011, the ITI highlighted the fact that future growth in the economy would be largely driven by Ireland’s 84,000 SMEs which currently employ almost 620,000 people.

ITI said that Budget 2011 should encourage an entrepreneurial and job creating culture in Ireland by introducing tax relief for loans to the SME sector, tax incentives to assist SMEs hire and retain key people and new lower capital gains tax to encourage equity investments in SMEs.

"Government needs to act decisively to leverage the potential of the SME sector through a range of focused tax measures and specifically the initiatives being put forward by ITI today," said ITI president Olivia Lynch.

"There is widespread acceptance that our future growth will largely come from the indigenous sector.

"However, we need to be proactive in bringing forward sensible incentives which will provide the stimulus necessary to allow our SMEs to deliver their full potential in terms of both job creation and economic growth.

"We would encourage today’s Cabinet meeting to put real action regarding our SME sector at the top of their list of considerations."