There were no changes to the venture capital tax reliefs (SEIS, EIS, VCTs or SITR) announced in the Chancellor’s Spring Statement today. However there are a couple of points which may be of interest.
1. There was an increase in the Employment Allowance for National Insurance to £5,000 from £4,000. Employment Allowance is a de minimis State aid, so this could impact on the amount of SEIS funding that a company can receive (see our article from March 2020 here)
2. The rate of VAT is being reduced to zero on solar power, heat pumps and insulation for Great Britain, but not Northern Ireland, due to the Northern Ireland Protocol. We think it may be the first time since Brexit that the government has announced a policy which treats various parts of the United Kingdom differently. This may be a precedent for other government interventions.
