This week's opinion

In this week’s issue an article by John Endacott explains the latest changes to investors’ relief. It reminded me of just how many twists and turns there have been during my professional life in the way that the tax system supports individuals who invest in new and growing businesses.

Almost everybody would accept that some form of tax relief is appropriate but the fact that there have been so many changes in this area demonstrates that finding the right way to structure relief is far from easy. There is a tension between making the relief straightforward to maximise its attractiveness and the need to prevent the rules being exploited.

Some readers will recall the problems with business expansion scheme guaranteed exit arrangements which led to its transformation into the enterprise investment scheme (EIS). Partly as a result of such problems EIS has become a minefield with many...