The British Library's Business and Intellectual Property (IP) Centre recently conducted a report that suggests that newly established small businesses should be given some form of tax exemption for the first two years of business. The former Dragon's Den member, Doug Richard, agreed that tax breaks were vital for small businesses.

This report was prepared to coincide with the launch of 'Global Entrepreneurship Week', a nationwide programme of events aimed at encouraging enterprise and innovation. The report puts forward a series of recommendations to make life easier for small businesses.

The recommendations outlined in the report states that small business should receive some form of taxation break for up to two years, an idea that has been heralded by other groups such as the Federation of Small Business (FSB), who have called for a corporation tax exemption for new start-up businesses.

When talking to the BBC, Ex-Dragon, Doug Richard, stated: ‘it can take up to 18 month of solid work before a new business can really establish itself and that tax relief is one of the best ways to provide incentives to aspiring entrepreneurs.’

In addition to this the report also suggests that a fast track scheme to help company’s patent ideas, and that broadband speeds must increase to accommodate the increasing reliance on the use of the Internet.

It is hoped that offering tax exemption incentives to small, newly formed businesses, will lower barriers to entry and help to reduce the effects of the recession on new companies.

The report has gone on to say that there should also be an increase in maternity leave subsidies, the formation of a subsidised national internship programme, and a plan to make it less complicated for small businesses to apply for government contracts.