Mark Daniels: Nice pub - nasty tax
I've spent most of the summer improving my beer garden. I've cleaned up areas that were full of unnecessary clutter, I've put fencing up to separate the area between the car park and the main beer garden to make it more family friendly, and I've partitioned off a slightly unsightly area where the bonfire and general rubbish areas are, meaning you can no longer see it when you come in to the car park. I've even mowed the lawn!
All-in-all, I'm quite pleased with the end result. It doesn't mean that it looked rubbish before, because it didn't, but now it just looks better.
It's one more reason people won't turn around in the car park and drive straight out again. It shows new visitors that my wife and I care about our business, and that we care about giving them a nice environment to enjoy themselves in.
But it all could have just been a great big waste of time and money because, according to the Sunday Express this weekend, Gordon Brown's government is considering implementing a 'nice pub tax'.
A process of revaluation for business rates is currently underway, with the Valuation Office Agency looking to come up with new-style rates bills in time for the next tax year.
Not content with already bleeding our businesses dry through alcohol duty, existing business rates, licensing fees and VAT, and completely ignorant of the laws they have brought in that have been steadily damaging our trade, apparently pubs that have beer gardens and children's play areas, or which host pool and darts tournaments and other similar events for their customers, can expect to see an increase in their rates.
It also seems that if a pub appears friendly and popular that could be all that's needed to send its rates soaring.
Gordon Brown's government seems hell bent on destroying the pub trade. An industry that was once a great British tradition is now on its knees, unable to turn in any direction without a bureaucrat or a tax man slapping another bit of draconian legislation on them or taking an even bigger slice of cash from the bottom line.
It seems that Labour will not be content until they have decimated this trade, until high streets are full of nothing but Costa Coffees and once-thriving community pubs have been replaced with Tesco Express stores and a couple of Indian restaurants.
I dread to think how much money I've handed over this summer in VAT and other incidental taxes, not just in the business I've taken but also in the money spent improving my facilities, but I'd hate to think it's all been a waste of time because it's just going to cost me more in 2010, and I feel sorry for the people who might want to improve their businesses but won't for fear of financial reprisals the following year.
Sorry, Gordon. You can come up with these poppycock schemes as much as you want but there's no more money left in the pot for you - and if you keep finding new ways to take it, more pubs will close, more people will be out of work and more families will be claiming from your already over-stretched benefits system.
