It's important that we spread awareness of the government's change in our right to earn a living. Last week's budget and change to inheritance tax relief for businesses / farms changed a fundamental right for workers up and down the country. Pre-budget the only ways a worker could lose their job legally, were gross misconduct or their company downsizing due to business need making their position redundant. 

Fate now decides who stays and who goes. If your boss has a heart attack your company could be on the line. Very few companies have 20% of their property value available in cash. Most don't even know what their true value is. This doesn't just apply to family businesses, it's managers or anyone trying to pick up the pieces in the aftermath of a tragedy. 

More alarmingly the "relief" available is not dependent on the number of employees in a company, all companies receive £1,000,000. This means a company with five people will get £200,000 per person, and a company with 1,000 people will give £1,000 per person in relief. 

OEDC.org estimates the average output per worker in the UK per year is around £118,000. Basic analysis to estimate the extent of this relief shows that excluding capital, and valuing the business solely on worker output, in 1 year, the relief is 0.84% for a 1000 person company. Compare this to a 10 person company with the same amount of productivity, valued at £1,180,000. For this company the relief covers 84.75% of the value. 

This does fit the "wealthier pay more" mindset in terms of owners - but this won't be their problem once they pass, it will be the next generation's problem. It's completely callous when considering workers. It shows the government doesn't care about jobs and employment. Our jobs really are now hanging in the balance of fate, specifically in the longevity of the owner of our companies. Rural communities and workers are particularly vulnerable, another consideration the government has ignored. 

There are two legal questions to ask here - does the government have the right to make private businesses unviable by enforcing taxes on them that aren't based on trading or consumption? 
Does the chancellor have the right to enforce a tax that allows a worker's continuation of employment to be based not on them or their companies performance but on the owner's mortality? 

I believe the answer should be NO. I implore the chancellor to formulate a response to these questions that doesn't include the phrase "hard decision" or "funding public services" because the right to earn a living is nothing to do with either of these things. Viable businesses with engaged employees should continue eternally. Worker's should not have to add the health of their employer to their list of worries. The Chancellor should publish her exact figures.

Rachel Reeves delivered a budget that she said would have wealthier people paying more. She said that working people would not be affected. But this clearly isn't the case. We also need to ask if the policy is even goi g to generate any money. British Businesses are responsible for the vast majority of the revenue the government generates in tax. Taking 20% not only reduce the rate companies can generate that year it also severely impacts their growth for the future.  I work for an independent recycling company that has been run by a family since its inception in the 60’s. 

The owner of the company is in his 60’s and will likely have to start planning his succession. His family work in the business. They care about us, have worked from the ground up and want to see it grow. They represent continuity. For me and 50 other members of staff, we value continuity of employment over anything else. We have specialised skills which can only be used in the private sector and in our area the jobs available to us are with similar private businesses. But we know that cash is tight. Recycling and transport are capital intensive as equipment is expensive. The press for taking silt out of our product cost £1.7million alone.  Each lorry is now £160,000. The next owner could not afford to pay 20% of the companies “value” or value of the assets and keep all of us. Even if they did that money would be better invested in equipment to recycle more. Please stand with me to launch this petition to get the government to think again. 

We have right to earning a living, putting inheritance tax on businesses significantly encroaches that. It cuts growth and leaves future generations with fewer companies to work for. This is not a win for the working person. It’s not a win for anyone who wants to buy a specialist product, work in a small to mid size company,  or shop somewhere that isn’t a chain.  The government have said they will raise £7billion through this tax. Family Business UK estimate it will cost the taxpayer £29billion and cost 391,000 of us our jobs. Show us the figures. Don’t let small mindedness and envy take our jobs! The first owner may die tomorrow and whoever they choose to inherit the business have to pay 20% tax. Please sign this petition now. Look out for events. Save our job certainty. Thank you for reading this.