In April 2003, HM Revenue and Customs published research into the enterprise investment scheme (EIS) carried out by PACEC and the Centre for Business Research at the University of Cambridge (available at: http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/research/report.pdf). This research concluded that the EIS scheme has met its objective of encouraging more investment by individuals in smaller, high risk trading companies, which in turn has increased their potential to grow and become successful.
The numbers of subscriptions made to invest through the enterprise investment scheme (EIS) are published by HMRC as National Statistics, see Table 8.1—‘Companies and amount of investment, number of subscriptions, business angels and amounts invested’ at:
http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/stats/ent_invest_scheme/table8-1.pdf.
The number of subscriptions is not equal to the number of investors as an individual can invest in more than one company.
Estimates of the aggregate cost of tax relief are published by HMRC as National Statistics, see Table 1.5—‘Main tax expenditures and structural reliefs’ at:
http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/stats/tax_expenditures/1_5_apr06.pdf
The estimated split between income tax and capital gains tax relief from 2001-02 to 2004-05 are:
Tax year Cost of income tax relief Cost of capital gains tax relief 2001-02 60 190 2002-03 50 150 2003-04 45 135 2004-051 40 130 1 Figure subject to revision, as more information becomes available. It is too early to give reliable estimates for 2005-06.