More entrepreneurs in Scotland believe that lowering corporate tax levels should be the next UK Government's top business priority than their counterparts in the rest of the UK, according to a survey by the EY consultancy of 150 entrepreneurs around the country.
The poll asked business leaders to select the areas that they believe should be priorities to fuel growth in a still anaemic national economy.
Twenty-one per cent of those surveyed put a reduction in corporation tax at the top of their wish list from the next government. Among those surveyed in Scotland, that figure was slightly higher at 25 per cent.
Priority number two, according to those surveyed, is an extension to tax relief measures followed, in third place, by infrastructure investment in road, rail and air links.
However, despite the survey's findings, Colin Borland, head of external affairs at the Federation of Small Businesses Scotland, said that increasing tax reliefs rather than lowering corporation tax was of more importance for most SMEs in Scotland.
He added that many FSB member companies in Scotland would like to see an increase in the Annual Investment Allowance (AIA), which allows companies to deduct the value of capital investment, such as new plant and machinery, from pre-tax profits.
Although the AIA has been set at a higher "temporary" level of £500,000 since last year it is set to return to its permanent level of £25,000 next January.
"If the AIA tax relief were to be set at a high level after the election that would help lead to an investment led recovery rather than a consumer spending led recovery," said Borland.
But Borland cautioned against reading too much into the results of the EY study as a survey of 150 businesses across the UK is "already a small sampling rate".
"On the issue of reducing corporation tax, this doesn't particularly chime with what our members are saying: they are more interested in tackling the issue of late payment and cash flow problems. The sort of taxes they would like to see reduced are non-domestic rates," said Borland.
"Those are the big issues for smaller companies although we understand why reducing corporation tax excises the corporates."
Glasgow-based entrepreneur Kate Mooney, the founder and chief executive of the successful online home furnishings company Occa-Home, said that the key issue for her company and most SMEs was the challenge of raising finance.
"It is still next to impossible for small businesses to get finance from the banks," she said.
Mooney added that, when it comes to the fast-growing e-commerce sector of the economy, extending tax relief to SMEs for their marketing and development budgets would be particularly helpful to boost growth.
Occa-Home has grown to become the UK's largest online interior design store since it was founded by Mooney in 2010, with the company's revenues and staff more than doubling in each year for the last five years.
It now has an annual turnover of £5 million, employs 45 people and counts former Tesco chief executive Sir Terry Leahy among its investors and board members. This week Occa-Home's online brand was changed to Houseology.com.
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