2014 Budget rains on VCTs and EIS

LEADER

There is nothing like a Budget to rain on someone's parade - and so the Chancellor has done his best to pour water on the increasingly important VCT and EIS market.

He suggested in his speech that HMRC is going to be all over these vehicles – looking for tax- dodgers. The move comes shortly after the news tax breaks have been removed from two VCTs run by Oxford Capital following a rule breach. Osborne’s plans come as one of the leading analysts of the sector, Bestinvest, put out figures suggesting this tax year is likely to be a record breaker in terms of fundraising. It estimates £283m has been raised so far this tax year, beating last year’s £240m, with additional capacity still out there to the tune of £211m. So VCTs and EIS could have been...