Barclays clamours for tax reliefs to revive UK equity market competitiveness

Calls for slashes to stamp duty

Barclays has urged the government and the Financial Conduct Authority to re-examine the current tax incentives for investors who back UK-listed companies in an attempt at “boosting the overall competitiveness of the UK capital markets”.

In Barclays' Graduating from a Junior Stock Market in the UK report released today (16 September), Rhiannon Price, director of policy and strategy on capital markets at Barclays and author of the report, recommended a swathe of policy changes to create a "positive glidepath" for "companies that are not currently public" and to ensure London remains an attractive place to publicly list.  Having witnessed the impact of the 2014 removal of the 0.5% stamp duty levied on junior market share purchases, Price urged the same transaction tax to be removed from share transactions on main markets. ...