How mezzanine finance can help ambitious SMEs to grow

SMEs are vital to the health of the UK economy and fast-growth businesses, in particular, play an important role in driving growth and creating new jobs. However, it’s these businesses, the ones with the potential to grow rapidly, that often find it the most difficult to obtain the funding they require. Business owners need finance in order to invest but they want to retain control of their business and not give up valuable equity. It’s a difficult situation for any ambitious entrepreneur. For companies with annual turnover of between £500,000

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The Budget 2013: Investors in SEIS secure extension to capital gains tax relief

The fourth Budget address from George Osborne has included an extension to the capital gains relief for the Seed Enterprise Investment Schemes (SEIS). The Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme is aimed at early-stage businesses Under plans unveiled by chancellor George Osborne, investors will be able to extinguish capital gains tax made up to 6 April 2013 by investing in a Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme (SEIS) in the next tax year. Old rules meant that tax exemption was only available on gains realised in 2012-13 then invested in the same year. Capital

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The Budget 2013: The devil is always in the detail – but in this Budget, its missing

Each year at Budget time I review how positive the announcements are for owner-managed businesses in particular. For instance, the news of the corporation tax reduction to 20 per cent from 2015 is for those paying the main rate and not relevant for small businesses. Similarly the extension to the ‘above the line’ R&D tax credits initiative is also for larger companies only. Much of what was covered in the chancellor’s speech today was already announced in the Autumn Statement, but we still managed to have a few additional surprises.

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