VCT managers look to period of calm after EU-led Budget storm

Last year's EU-influenced Budget brought the most significant changes to the VCT sector in over half a decade. Industry specialists reveal how the changes will affect them.

The changes announced by Chancellor George Osborne last summer will have far-reaching effects on the tax-efficient investment sector, and VCTs in particular. But in comparison to previous efforts to re-tune or direct investment in the sector, this time around it is the European Union which has provided the impetus for change. Previous sector-defining changes for VCTs have been, in effect, measures which have helped the government fine tune its approach to tax-efficient investing. The initial tax relief rate of 20% was deemed, in the wake of the contemporaneous fall in investor dema...