The Labour Party has today published its “Start-up, Scale-up” review, a copy of which can be found here. The report was released after a call for evidence earlier this year on what support UK start-ups need in order to better succeed. The report comes out strongly in favour of SEIS, EIS and VCTs and has identified several areas where the tax reliefs could be improved to better assist companies. The report’s recommendations include:
- Committing to maintaining SEIS, EIS and VCTs including extending the EIS reliefs and VCTs beyond their 2025 sunset clause;
- Reviewing whether the scope and scale of EIS and SEIS are sufficient;
- Reviewing the SEIS and EIS age limits and investment limits and particularly the effect of these limits on businesses in the regions.
We are pleased to see that Labour specifically acknowledged: “both the tax system and the accessibility of public equity markets have an important role to play in incentivising investment and entrepreneurship. As well as exploring where changes could be made for the better, Labour should commit to maintaining the parts of the system that work.”
