European Commission Approves Extension to EIS, VCT Regimes Under U.K. State Aid Regime

The European Commission Aug. 14 issued State Aid Case Decision No. SA.107221, approving an extension to the Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS) and the Venture Capital Trust (VCT) regime for investments in early-stage small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), knowledge-intensive SMEs, and mid-caps. The regime includes measures to: 1) extend the existing EIS and VCT regimes to April 5, 2035, from April 5, 2025; 2) explain that tax relief is granted automatically, on a non-discretionary basis, by HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) upon meeting the qualifying objective criteria; 3) specify that the expected budget for companies in Northern Ireland is 10 million ...