The Federation of Small Businesses has slammed the
government's attitude to the promotion of IT after it emerged that
few firms are aware that they can get 100% tax rebates for IT
purchases. The limited-period offer ends next month.
Businesses with a turnover of less than £2.8m and fewer than 50
employees can claim 100% tax relief on purchases of computing
products until the end of the financial year, when it reverts to
the normal rate of 40%.
A recent survey found that 77% of small firms questioned were
unaware of the tax benefits available, and 58% would consider
bringing forward some IT purchasing to take advantage of it.
The Federation of Small Businesses blamed the government for the
lack of awareness of the rebate among small businesses.
A spokesman said, "The buck stops with the government. We think
that education and training about IT in this country is lacking and
that there are very few sources of advice for small
businesses."
Tim Beadle, director of Marketing Improvement, which carried out
the survey for CSSG, said, "SMEs' sources of good advice are
extremely limited. Government has completely underestimated the
scale of the task. If you look at the Kew Associates data, you can
see that on a per-employee basis SMEs spend between 10% and 40% of
what the corporate sector spends on IT. This is massively holding
back the UK's competitiveness."