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The UK is a very attractive location to establish a holding company for startups since not only does it offer a relatively stable political, economic, legal, and economic system with London as a global business hub it also has an attractive tax regime in its own right and extensive tax treaty network with the rest of the world. With a globally unique capital gain tax relief scheme for investors plus further decreasing corporation tax over the next years, the location of a UK holding company is an important consideration in any international structure where there is a desire to minimise the tax charged on the income flow through tax optimised investment vehicles.   To foster the startup eco-system, HMRC offers two tax incentive schemes for UK based investors who invest in UK holding companies and qualifying startups with permanent establishments in the UK. The Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme (SEIS), encourages investment in new startups by providing private investors with 50% of investments (up to £150,000) back in income tax relief. Plus, in the 2014/2015 tax year investors benefit from 50% capital gains tax relief on gains which are reinvested in SEIS eligible shares; this relief applied to 100% of reinvested gains in 2012/2013. Also, any gain arising on the disposal of the shares may be exempt from capital gains tax, and loss relief is available if the disposal results in a loss.   Click here to read the full post