BUDGET 2016: Government clearly prepared to drive growth
The reduction in capital gains tax from 33% to 20% on the sale of whole or part of a business applying to capital gains of up to €1m will equally support investment in high potential Irish business and reward entrepreneurs and job creators. The reduction of the marginal tax rate below 50% is also important and good for business.
I welcome the initiative of introducing a tax rate of 6.25% for companies participating in research and development (R&D) too as it is vitally important for the knowledge economy to keep in line with other European countries.
The Government’s commitment to address the high costs of childcare is also important and should help with getting much needed skills back into the workforce. The initial steps towards putting the self-employed on an equal footing with the PAYE worker is further good news.
The employers PRSI threshold increase will help stimulate job creation and is another welcome announcement. Personally, I feel that the high universal social charge (USC) was a major deterrent to encouraging additional work and the reduction was badly needed as its important to reward those people who are willing to put in the extra hours.
In the past I have regularly witnessed workers refusing overtime due to the high cost of the USC.
The announcement of €500m next year for enterprise agencies should also help with job creation and FDI.
The simplification of the commercial motor tax structure is good for companies that have any fleets and the fact that we have engineers travelling around the country we welcome this and are confident it will result in savings.
In summary I feel the budget is very fair with sensible and affordable steps that will keep the recovery going.
Ronan Murphy is the chief executive of IT security company Smarttech, based in Cork
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