§ My second measure relates specifically to entrepreneurs who have built up successful businesses and now wish to sell them in order to start up a new one.
§ The current capital gains tax regime provides generous annual exemptions to those who make regular capital gains from trading in shares, but it is much less generous to the entrepreneur. Typically, he sells shares in his own company only once, so has only one year's annual exemption to set against gains built up by hard work over a lifetime. Thus, for every £100 taken out of the old company at the margin, he has only £60 to invest in a new one. It is hardly surprising that entrepreneurs complain that they are locked in by the CGT regime, and prevented from investing their talents elsewhere.
§ For this reason, I propose in future to defer the payment of CGT for any entrepreneur whose gains from the sale of his own company are reinvested in another qualifying unquoted trading company, or companies. I know that this will be widely welcomed by the venture capital industry.
§ I also propose to relax the conditions for CGT retirement relief by reducing the qualifying shareholding from 25 per cent. to 5 per cent.; and to extend this relief to cover full-time employees as well as directors. These changes will cost £50 million in a full year.