Don’t expect a Budget boost

Just a few weeks before the Budget, many fear the chancellor will take another look at tax on self-employment.

868-Hammond-634

Hammond may feel he's helped SMEs enough
(Image credit: 2017 Getty Images)

It now looks almost certain that more new businesses will be launched in the UK this year than ever before the third successive year in which records have been broken. Nine months into 2017, almost 520,000 new start-ups had been launched, according to new data from the Centre for Entrepreneurs, well on the way to eclipsing last year's final total of 658,000.

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David Prosser
Business Columnist

David Prosser is a regular MoneyWeek columnist, writing on small business and entrepreneurship, as well as pensions and other forms of tax-efficient savings and investments. David has been a financial journalist for almost 30 years, specialising initially in personal finance, and then in broader business coverage. He has worked for national newspaper groups including The Financial Times, The Guardian and Observer, Express Newspapers and, most recently, The Independent, where he served for more than three years as business editor.