The Chancellor clearly hopes that enhancing the tax reliefs for individuals investing in Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS) and Venture Capital Trust (VCT) shares will stimulate investment in qualifying trading companies.
What are the key changes?
From April 2011:
- Income tax relief for individuals investing in EIS is increased from 20 per cent to 30 per cent.
From April 2012:
- Companies will be permitted to raise £10m per year instead of £2m.
- The size restrictions will be relaxed, allowing companies with fewer than 250 employees and gross assets of less than £15m to issue qualifying shares.
George Bull is head of tax at Baker Tilly.
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