This week's opinion

It is becoming clearer all of the time that the changes to dividend taxation and the reforms to the transactions in securities legislation are not minor technical adjustments but something which will have a profound impact on how we look at the appropriate tax structures for small businesses. We have covered these topics several times in the magazine recently and this week we carry an article by Kevin Slevin which draws together many of the threads and recommends urgent review of your small business clients. I urge you to consider the points he raises and if you have not already done so put together an action plan for dealing with your key clients.

This is unlikely to be the last change we see in this area. HMRC has done some thinking out loud about further reforms including the possibility of introducing some form of close company apportionment....