The pre-Budget report happened yesterday, don’t know if you heard. As usual, it was seen as something of a mixed bag for small businesses; the Tories and the big accountancy firms said it smacked of ‘buy now, pay later’, but small business groups said it provided some welcome short-term relief.

The big headlines were a £7bn pot of tax cuts and loan promises for small businesses, coupled with a nasty 0.5 per cent increase in NIC which affects both employees and employers and will net HMRC £5bn a year – that starts in 2011.

Also unpopular will be the increase to 45% of income tax for people earning more than £150,000 a year. That affects not only wealthy people in Britian, but also could act as a deterrent to highly skilled workers from abroad who are considering coming to work in the UK.

Other changes include a postponement of the planned increase in small business coporation tax, spreading tax payments for small businesses struggling with cash-flow, extended loss relief allowing small firms to carry back losses for three years and a gradual reduction in personal allowances for high-earners.

A mixed bag indeed, but how will it affect you?

High taxes and competition from cut-price supermarkets are killing small community based pubs and thousands will go bust unless we do something about it.

The Campaign of Real Ale (CAMRA) says around 7,500 (one in eight) will go bust by 2012 if the government doesn’t intervene.

It wants to see lower VAT, cuts to beer taxes and a lower limit for the price of a unit of alcohol – which would stop supermarkets selling it at a loss for promotional reasons.

More about the problem here.