Chancellor Philip Hammond delivered a rather bland Autumn Budget.
There were no further changes in the rules surrounding pension investments, which had been expected by some of the press of late.
But as part of his action plan he promised to unlock more than £20bn of patient capital investment to finance growth in innovative firms over 10 years.
This would be achieved by:
1) Establishing a new £2.5bn Investment Fund incubated in the British Business Bank with the intention to float or sell once it has established a track record.
2) Co-investing with the private sector, a total of £7.5bn of investment will be unlocked.
3) And perhaps the most important measure affecting investors was doubling the annual allowance for individual investing in knowledge-intensive companies through the enterprise investment scheme (EIS) and the annual investment those companies can receive through EIS and the venture capital trust schemes (VCT).
The EIS scheme was set up with two basic reliefs - income tax relief and capital gains deferral relief - to allow individuals to invest in new start-ups that had an element of risk (the SEIS scheme for higher risk investments was not mentioned).
Therefore, the increased limit to what an individual can invest in EIS companies increases from £1m to £2m.
We look forward to receiving further details in relation to these measures, which will come as welcome news for those investing in UK technology and other companies meeting the relevant criteria.
Rajiv Vadgama is a tax partner at RSM UK
