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<p>Large investment funds effectively comprise the investments of individuals, whether
via their pension funds, insurance contracts, or other savings and investment products.
The decision to invest in companies’ shares directly, or indirectly through a fund,
is a matter for individual investors.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>The Government
has taken a variety of steps to encourage individual saving, and retail investment
in shares in particular. For example, we have:</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>- Reduced
the starting rate of income tax for savings;</p><p> </p><p>- Increased the maximum
annual amount which can be invested in an Individual Savings Account (ISA) to £15,240
in the 2015-16 tax year, and provided savers with greater flexibility to withdraw
their money and put it back in to an ISA within the same year, without losing their
tax benefits;</p><p> </p><p>- Introduced, from April 2016, a new tax-free Personal
Savings Allowance of £1,000 (or £500 for higher rate taxpayers) of interest earned
on savings (taking 95 per cent of taxpayers out of savings tax altogether) as well
as a new £5,000 tax-free dividend allowance for all taxpayers;</p><p> </p><p>- Allowed
shares from growth markets such as the Alternative Investment Market (AIM) to be held
in ISAs - making investment in the growth markets easier;</p><p> </p><p>- Abolished
stamp duty on AIM shares, attracting further investment into growing companies and
reducing the cost of raising capital for those companies.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p>
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