Ahead of the UK Autumn Budget in late October, CIMA’s main priority for Chancellor of the Exchequer John Healey is to create a tax system that supports rather than discourages hiring, investment, work, and business expansion.
“Employer and employee taxation, frozen thresholds, VAT, business rates, corporation tax, and the administrative burden of compliance interact with rising operating costs and weak demand,” the CIMA Autumn Budget Submission 2026 said. “Their cumulative effect reduces the financial headroom businesses have to recruit, raise wages, invest in technology and equipment, accept new work, and pursue growth opportunities.”
In summary, CIMA’s key proposals include:
Reduce the tax burden for businesses. Reduce Employer National Insurance through a lower rate and higher secondary threshold. CIMA also encourages the UK government to introduce a growth and investment test for new tax measures and publish an SME tax-administration improvement plan to simplify tax administration and improve HMRC support for small businesses.
Establish a coherent framework for regional growth. Create a durable regional growth framework combining clear national direction with meaningful local flexibility that puts SMEs and local employers at the centre of shaping regional priorities.
Help ambitious SMEs move from stability to growth. Reinstate and modernise the Growth Accelerator Scheme to operate alongside the Business Growth Service to provide SMEs with tailored support focused on individual barriers preventing each business from growing.
Address productivity disparities. Establish a permanent and independent UK Productivity Commission to examine national, regional, private-sector, and public-sector productivity and advise on how geographic productivity disparities can be reduced.
Give businesses greater long-term certainty and proportionate regulation. Publish a rolling five-year Business Policy and Regulation Roadmap and assess the combined effect of significant changes to taxation, minimum wages, employment regulation, and administrative requirements rather than considering each measure in isolation.
National Budget 2027 proposals submitted to Sri Lanka treasury
The AICPA and CIMA, together as the Association of International Certified Professional Accountants, has called for a strong focus on policies that can unlock productive investment, improve competitiveness, and help build the foundations for sustainable economic growth in Sri Lanka in its National Budget Proposal 2027, a news release said.
Drawing on discussions with industry leaders, the submission brings together recommendations across eight areas: macroeconomic priorities; taxation; education; banking, investment, and capital markets; SMEs and entrepreneurship; state-owned enterprises; IT, business process management, and global business services; and value-added exports.
Across these areas, the AICPA and CIMA identified five priorities for consideration:
- Creating fiscal space for productive investment;
- Broadening the tax base and strengthening tax administration;
- Increasing the flow of capital to productive sectors;
- Strengthening value-added exports and higher-value services;
- Aligning skills and digital capability with future economic needs.
Association partners with India universities to promote skills development
The Association has partnered with Medhavi Skills University in Sikkim, India, and R.A. Podar College of Commerce & Economics and ATLAS SkillTech University in Mumbai to help finance students build the skills needed to succeed in modern finance and deliver pathways to career readiness through the CGMA Professional Qualification.
Signed memoranda of understanding with the universities formalise the widening access to globally benchmarked finance education.
— To comment on this article or to suggest an idea for another article, contact Steph Brown at Stephanie.Brown@aicpa-cima.com.