The chancellor could use the Budget to help both startups and investors
To emphasise the importance of showing that the UK is very much open for business post-Brexit, the government has decided to support both startups and investors.
With the new chancellor Rishi Sunak confirming that a budget will go ahead on the 11th of March, the attention is focused on potential reform to entrepreneurs’ relief. These changes could enable entrepreneurs to pay less capital gains tax when they sell all or part of their business. This is a major step forward for later-stage business owners. The government is keen to maintain the existing reliefs that enable businesses to progress from the startup phase and as well as reducing the restrictions faced by businesses at early stage.
IBM competition calls for open source solutions to climate change
Now in its third edition, the Call for Code Global Challenge is a competition led by IBM, United Nations Human Rights and the Linux Foundation. The challenge will call for developers and innovators from all over the world to fight climate change with open source-powered tech.
Over five years, this $30M initiative motivates developers to use their skills and latest tech expertise to create new concepts that can drive positive and long-lasting change across the globe. According to IBM, the challenge “encourages and fosters the creation of practical applications” built on open-source software including Red Hat OpenShift, IBM Cloud, IBM Watson, IBM Blockchain and data from The Weather Company.
Sick days represent £77B per year in the UK
A recent survey of 32,000 workers conducted by VitalityHealth showed that sick leave costs the UK economy £77B per year uncovering an estimated average of 2-3 sick days per month or 27 sick days per year.
As a result, companies experience a decrease in productivity due to the work of their employees being interrupted. Many HR and health professionals indicate that this trend is due to the pressures and anxiety associated with work. Tight deadlines and the inability to turn off laptops and mobile phones after hours are encouraging a poor work-life balance and declining states of physical and mental health.
Overall, employers lose £17B pounds in paid sick leave, since salaried employees receive the same pay, despite taking days off through illness. According to the survey, the most common reasons for taking sick days are colds and flus, migraines and headaches, stomach bugs, sports injuries and toothaches.
Most organisations are barely trying to fight this issue, while others are encouraging flexible hours for a better life balance, with remote working for 1 to 2 days per week and offering health and fitness on business premises including yoga, meditation and running clubs.
Ahead of any Budget, there is always great speculation on what may be announced. This year, the focus thus far has been on when a Budget would happen and who will deliver it.
But with the new chancellor Rishi Sunak confirming that it will go ahead on 11 March, all attention has turned to the content.
One major issue this year is the possible reform of entrepreneurs’ relief.
This relief allows entrepreneurs to pay less capital gains tax when they sell all or part of their business. It is an important incentive for later-stage business owners, and we would certainly caution against scaling it back — more so than ever given the importance of sending the message that the UK is open for business post-Brexit.
However, of equal importance to get right is to make sure that we maintain the reliefs that enable businesses to progress from the startup phase, and reduce the restrictions and complexity that, all too often, are real stumbling blocks at this early stage.
In fact, it would be fair to argue that making these reliefs work better and be easier to access matters just as much during a company’s startup stage as entrepreneurs’ relief does at later stages.
https://www.smartcitiesworld.net/news/news/coders-invited-to-tackle-climate-change-in-global-challenge-5063
