Northern Ireland levy on large firms planned for April
Northern Ireland Minister for Finance Sammy Wilson has introduced a new levy on large retailers which will be used to fund a rate relief scheme for smaller businesses
Print16 December 2011
A levy on large retailers in Northern Ireland, the money from which will be used to fund an extended rates relief scheme for small retailers, should be in place by April according to NI Minister for Finance Sammy Wilson.
Unsurprisingly, the Minister faced strong opposition from large retailers, including Tesco, B&Q and Sainsbury’s.
Tesco, which is the second-biggest employer in Northern Ireland, has estimated that the levy would cost it £1.5m to £2m a year. The retail giant described the proposal as the wrong tax at the wrong time for Northern Ireland and said it could hurt investment.
Minister Wilson claimed Tesco threatened to abandon its £100m investment programme in Northern Ireland as a result of the levy. However he maintained he wouldn’t be influenced by “bully-boy tactics.”
He said the levy was sound because small businesses had been hit harder by the recession than the large groups. He also worked out that the levy represented only “a 0.004% reduction on their return on capital over a 25-year period,” for Tesco.
The scheme would raise almost £7m from the 80 biggest retail stores, which would be redistributed by extending an existing business rate relief scheme to small companies.
The Minister said the levy would be imposed for three years, by which time a scheduled revaluation of business rates would be completed in 2015.
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