Flags 140 mln stg hit to 202526 tax bill
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LONDON, Nov 7 Reuters The boss of British supermarket Sainsbury39;s said changes to national insurance made by the government in last week39;s budget will add 140 million pounds 181 million to its tax bill next year and warned the move would be inflationary.

Finance minister Rachel Reeves raised employers39; National Insurance, or social security, contributions by 1.2 percentage points to 15 from April next year, and also lowered the threshold for when firms start paying to 5,000 pounds from 9,100 pounds per year. She also raised the minimum wage for most adults by 6.7 from April.

We39;ll do everything we can to mitigate this, but given the margins of the industry this is a 3 margin industry there just isn39;t the capacity to absorb this level of unexpected cost inflation that is coming at us as fast as it is, Sainsbury39;s CEO Simon Roberts told reporters on Thursday after the group reported first half results.

As the Office for Budget Responsibility have said it will feed through into inflation, he said.

Roberts was also critical of the government for not doing enough in the budget to reduce retailers39; business rates burden and for tax changes impacting farmers.

On Wednesday, Marks Spencer and JD Wetherspoon also highlighted big hits to their tax bills.

Reeves has…