SCOTTISH business organisations are joining forces to fight the tax changes put forward by Alistair Darling, the Chancellor, in last week's Pre-Budget Report.
The "big six" business organisations, made up of CBI Scotland, the Institute of Directors Scotland, the Scottish Chambers of Commerce, the Federation of Small Businesses Scotland, Scottish Financial Enterprise and the Scottish Council for Development and Industry, are to maintain an "open channel of communication" to draw up battle plans in response to the Chancellor's announcement.
The move comes as the UK's four main business organisations united to write an open letter to the Chancellor, warning him that his plans would be "discouraging longer-term investment and risk-taking".
Under the new regulations, set to come into force in April next year, the owners of small and medium sized companies will see their tax bills soar when they sell their businesses - as taper relief for business assets and the 10 per cent
capital gains tax rate is replaced with a flat 18 per cent rate of capital gains tax.
Scotland is expected to be one of the areas worst affected by the new system, as a large proportion of Scottish businesses are SMEs.
However, the plan is welcome news to non-business asset holders, such as people with second homes, who will see their tax bills drop when they sell their assets.
The UK leaders of the CBI, Institute of Directors, British Chambers of Commerce and Federation of Small Businesses took the rare step on Friday of meeting to organise collective action in response to the Chancellor's proposals. The organisations, which represent most UK businesses, are calling for an urgent meeting with the Chancellor and want him to suspend the tax rise until discussions have been completed.
In their letter, which describes Darling's announcement as "a bolt out of the blue", calls for the Chancellor to find an "alternative way" forward, warning that small businesses, employees in company share schemes and venture capitalists will be hit by the changes.
Although Scotland's "big six" group has not yet had a formal meeting to discuss its own course of action, leaders said they were looking to form a united front to spell out the effect the tax increase would have on Scottish companies.
David Lonsdale, assistant director of CBI Scotland, said: "We have regular meetings with the other Scottish business organisations and if a campaign from Scotland can add to what is going on UK-wide, then that is something we will look at doing. There will be constant channels of communication between the business organisations about this."
Norman Quirk, chairman of the Scottish Chambers of Commerce, said the issue could "not wait" until the group held its next regular meeting in just over a month, and added he would be speaking to his counterparts at the other organisations as soon as possible.
He said: "There will be continuous consultation with the other members of the big six Scottish business organisations over this. A large number of small companies will see their tax rate rise by as much as 80 per cent next April - the consequence of that is that a number of business owners will look to sell up before the rules change."
David Watt, director of the IoD Scotland, said he would be lobbying Scottish Westminster politicians to plead Scotland's case to the Chancellor. He said: "The changes are potentially very seriously economically damaging for Scotland and the rest of the UK. We need to be encouraging entrepreneurship, not trying to hamper it."
