Budget 2014: HMRC probes 'misuse' of VCTs and EISs

People looking to establish tax avoidance schemes will have to pay due taxes to HMRC upfront before applying to get it back through the courts, Chancellor George Osborne has announced.

Osborne also said he was increasing HMRC's budget and that the government was looking into the potential misuse of Enterprise Investment Schemes (EISs) and Venture Capital Trusts (VCTs) as part of a series of measures to crack down on tax avoidance. New rules will exclude investments in VCTs that are conditionally linked in any way to a share buy-back, or that have been made within 6 months of a disposal of shares in the same VCT. The government said in the Budget document it was concerned about the growing use of contrived structures to allow investment in low-risk activities that be...