This week we welcome back Vera McFly with an inside track on the horsemeat scandal and the lowdown on where to get the genuine article. Vera finds oil in them there waves, wonders at the take-off of passenger numbers at Prestwick and applauds the RBS shares coming to a wallet near you. And if you fancy aquiring a huge chunk of Scottish rock...
FSB steps up campaign for clearer business rates this week
Do you know how your business rate valuation is arrived at? Do the valuations make sense? Do they take sufficiently into account current business conditions?
Tomorrow (Wednesday) the Federation of Small Businesses goes on the offensive with startling research on “incomprehensible” rate calculations.
In a submission to the Scottish government’s review of business rates, the FSB is set to call for the system to be made more accessible and comprehensible.
It will publish the results of its survey of members’ views on non-domestic rates undertaken between 29 January and 5 February 2013. A total of 961 Scottish members responded.
Business premises are usually re-valued on a 5 year cycle. The last revaluation took place in 2010, based on data gathered before the economic downturn in 2008. After the last revaluation, only 18% of FSB members appealed their premises’ valuation. Alarmingly, almost one fifth of respondents (18%) did not know they could appeal.
Scottish non-domestic rates raise £2.3 billion in taxation annually.
The FSB is the UK's leading business organisation with around 200,000 members and around 20,000 in Scotland. It exists to protect and promote the interests of the UK’s Real-Life Entrepreneurs who run their own business.
More information is available at Details of the survey will be available from tomorrow at www.fsb.org.uk/scotland.
A copy of the Scottish Government’s consultation can be found here: http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Government/local-government/17999/11199/brief-guide
