One in five small businesses feels optimistic about growth and expansion following the Government’s announcement to introduce a \u00a32,000 allowance towards employer National Insurance contributions (NICs), research by Direct Line for Businesses has found.<\/p>\n
A third of businesses also plan to recruit additional staff to take advantage of the reduced cost of employment once the Employment Allowance scheme is introduced. Small to medium-sized businesses (SMEs) account for more than 99 per cent of all private sector businesses in the UK.<\/p>\n
The new allowance will come into effect from April 2014 and is estimated to take 450,000 of the UK’s smallest businesses out of paying employer NICs.<\/p>\n
Announcing the allowance in the March 2013 Budget, Chancellor George Osborne said: “For the person who’s set up their own business, and is thinking about taking on their first employee, a huge barrier will be removed. They can hire someone on \u00a322,000, or four people on the minimum wage, and pay no jobs tax.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"