Feedback from our practitioners helped shape a recent letter
ACCA practitioners responded to ACCA’s monthly SME Tracker in January, sharing that on average 21% of SME clients were expected to struggle to meet payroll costs. The results also point to continued low levels of business planning and awareness of available finance, as accountants believe that more than one in five (21%) UK small businesses will run out of cash in the next 12 months.
For this reason ACCA recently wrote to the Chancellor, asking the government to create some breathing room for businesses with a 12 month delay to the Health and Social Care Levy. Extrapolated across the 5.5 million SME businesses in the UK, this could mean around 1.4m small businesses failing to meet payroll costs in the coming months with the resulting cascade through the supply chain impacting many more.
The results received coverage across BBC Scotland, ITV Wales, Sky News Ian King (Friday 11 February), City AM, Business in the News, Business Live, UK Today News, West Wales Chronicle, Wales 247, insider.co.uk, TECHregister, Daily Business, Scottish Business News, Daily Business, Accountancy Today and Global Payroll.