The latest pre-budget rumour/leak (take your pick) is of a ‘clampdown’ on EIS and VCT investments to ‘stop high earners abusing tax reliefs’.
I never quite get this. Time and again, governments decide they want to encourage investment in something, start-up businesses, pensions, the ailing British film industry, trees, windmills…so they come up with a tax break or two. Then they find that those with the biggest tax bills are, surprise surprise, the ones who are investing most So they’re not getting as much tax. So they announce a clamp down. Then, surprise surprise, in a few years, another government decides…you get the picture?
