FSB 'will fight tooth and nail' against income shifting laws

The Federation of Small businesses says it will "fight tooth and nail" to prevent the government from passing income shifting legislation on the quiet.

Suspicions have been raised that the government is delaying legislation changes, in order to bring them in "without too much fuss" next year.

Income shifting occurs when couples jointly owning a business split the dividends between them in order to minimise the amount of tax they pay.

Simon Briault, a spokesman for the FSB, commented: "What happened in the budget, where they deferred it for a year, was really encouraging for us and we see that as an opportunity for us to try and get those plans scrapped permanently, so that's what we'll be doing over the next year."

Mr Briault said the government may have predicted that they would "get a kicking" if they had made income shifting changes this year.

The FSB currently has around 205,000 members across the UK.