ICAS chief Sir Brian proposes Gift Aid for start ups

ICAS President Sir Brian Souter CA has today launched the first of a series of ideas to help boost economic growth including a Gift Aid scheme for Start Ups.

Sir Brian, who was brought up in a council house in Perth and is best known as the Chairman of Stagecoach, the firm he co-founded as a start-up with only two buses in 1980.

He turned to his family to provide the critical first cheque to allow him to start his dream of growing Stagecoach into a world-famous transport company and now also owns a stake in several other companies through his investment vehicle, Souter Investments.

Now, as head of accountancy body ICAS, Sir Brian has proposed a tax incentive that he says will make it easier and financially rewarding for families and communities to invest in budding entrepreneurs.

The incentive is based on the successful Gift Aid scheme which charities benefit from every year via the Government’s 25 per cent ‘top up’ for donations.

Key features of Sir Brian’s proposed Small Business Enterprise Tax Scheme include:

Sir Brian said: “Start-ups are one of the main drivers of economic growth and are the lifeblood of local economies.

“Business birth rates and survival rates are the key factors here and we need to radically improve them.

“Our politicians need to pay more attention to the creation of wealth as it makes a fair distribution of wealth much easier to achieve.”