The talk of the week/month/year is this new tax. I can hear everyone screaming, not another tax. I was watching the TV program “Can of Worms” and after hearing John Elliot’s comment in regards to parliament having a period, to have a good clean out, it got me thinking and after I had finished having good laugh to myself I thought about their simplified taxation systems (not) and how the new carbon tax will affect small business.
By now, if you are not living under a rock, you would know about this Carbon Tax and what an uproar it has caused. Everywhere we turn all we hear is how consumer confidence is down and how small businesses are struggling and now Labour has just added another blow.
Consumers are going to be the first losers as they will have to wear the price increase passed on from small businesses, and the second loser will be small business with landlords keen to pass on any increase to their costs. This new tax will cause an increase in costs of living which in turn will increase inflationary pressures, also putting pressure on interest rates to go up. You might be saying thank you ‘captain obvious,’ but I’m really pointing all this out so that we can be prepared.
We have a little under a year to prepare for this extra tax. As part of preparing for this new tax, we should put into place cost savings measures by looking at our reducing our carbon foot print. A few quick things to look at are; make sure lights are turned off, avoid computer standby use, make sure unused appliances are switched off, if your office has a shower disconnect the hot water to that, change your travel plans and use email of video conferencing like Skype.
Speak to your landlord about making your building more green at their expense. Ask them to send a qualified carbon footprint assessor through to determine ways to save. If you are a landlord, comply or risk losing your tenants as they will be forced to move to smaller, cheaper buildings.
My last tip would be to review your pricing strategy. We all know that this is coming, so start to look at increasing your prices slowly now to absorb this cost. What this means is you increase by 5 percent now instead of 15 percent next year that will turn you clients/customers off. If we increase slowly and strategically the price increase will not be as noticeable as a large increase next year.
Either that or change your career to a green assessor!
