Cor Molenaar: ‘Why should retail and SMEs…

The emergency bells are ringing loud and clear. Jan Meerman (INretaill) estimates that 40 percent of retail and SMEs no longer feel like continuing. More and more retail companies are going bankrupt or simply closing their doors and websites. More and more administrative hassle, more and more taxes, repaying corona debts and on top of that, declining purchasing power among customers and companies. Just stand there.

Politics calls for a minimum subsistence level to be achieved. Rightly so, I think. Although self-employed people and entrepreneurs are often not involved. Entrepreneurs also have to deal with decreasing capacity, but this is not taken into account. Is there still a future for SMEs and retail?

‘More tax for companies results in inflation’

The engine of our existence are the companies that provide employment, make profits and pay taxes on them. These taxes determine our prosperity. All government expenditure is made from this and wages are also paid from it. So the government spends the money that companies earn. But the proverb still goes: Don’t bite the hand that feeds you?

However, a lot of work has been done on this. And that is being done even more. As frugal citizens, we are taught to earn the money first and then spend it. The government seems to apply different rules. Last year’s excessive expenditure (18 billion) must be repaid. That is why the government chooses to finance excessive expenditure with tax increases and thinks first of companies. Then of course you end up in a vicious circle. More taxes for companies, which will be passed on to final prices, will have inflation as one of the consequences. But consumers also have to deal with extra taxes, so they can spend less money due to lower net wages and rising inflation.

Help the companies survive

The problems for the government are clear: there are more and more wishes from society (immigration costs, education, poverty reduction, public transport) and there is a desire for social security to combat poverty. To pay for all these, often justified, wishes, tax increases are proposed. By getting the money from the business community, the source of income is of course exhausted. The problems in SMEs and retail are the result.

The future also gives us little hope. Consider increasing costs for the climate, costs for the war in Ukraine and a sharp increase in healthcare costs due to an aging population. So much more money is needed for the current policy.

But why is no reassessment of expenditure being considered? Towards cuts or a reassessment of what the money is spent on? A ceiling on total expenditures and a ceiling on tax revenues? Why do taxes have to be raised again and again to pay for new wishes? Consumers must also pay attention. And if consumption decreases, consumption will also decrease.

No alternative sources of money tapped

All in all, there has been quite a decline in recent years, no alternative sources of money have been tapped – such as more exports – and current developments from Europe, such as the necessary immigrant reception, provide a great claim for the future. Knowing this, we must do everything we can to keep SMEs and retail healthy. It is necessary to reconsider which expenses are really necessary and how income is fairly distributed in society. It is essential that the roots of our existence require extra care: SMEs and retail are not cash cows, but job generators that provide prosperity and also promote the quality of life in cities and villages.

There is now talk of a bank tax, but banks are essential for business because of healthy lending. The bank tax can ideally be used to make the business community (SMEs and retail) healthy again through targeted investments.

Greater attention to the consequences of the measures taken in recent years and greater attention to the economy as the basis for our existence is also essential. In addition, retail and SMEs, online and offline, deserve more attention. After all, almost all Dutch people started their working life with that first job in the shopping street.