BIA response to Tax Support for Entrepreneurs - Call for Evidence
The BIA has submitted its response to HM Treasury's Tax Support for Entrepreneurs: Call for Evidence
The call for evidence intends to gather views and evidence on tax policy support for investment in high-growth companies. The BIA welcomes this call for evidence, as a pro-innovation and pro-entrepreneurship tax landscape is essential to ensuring that Britain is the best place in the world for companies to start, scale, and stay in the UK.
BIA calls for government to:
- Simplify and modernise EIS, VCT and EMI to remove technical traps and introduce consistent definitions.
- Target and strengthen capital incentives for high-potential Knowledge Intensive Companies through enhanced EIS/VCT relief and restoration of ERIS.
- Improve incentives to attract and retain talent by expanding EMI/CSOP limits and introducing an NI exemption for innovative companies.
- Develop incentives to anchor innovation and high-growth companies in the UK by incentivising reinvestment of gains into qualifying growth businesses.
Successful deployment of these proposals would lead to a markedly improved tax system that works with the industries most equipped to deliver Government’s missions, rather than against them. Such a system is essential to unlocking the true innovation and growth potential of the life sciences.