In its Autumn Budget, the Government has announced the granting of powers to HM Treasury to amend Stamp Duty and Stamp Duty Reserve Tax legislation for the Private Intermittent Securities and Capital Exchange (PISCES).
HM Treasury will be able to introduce secondary legislation to exempt transfers on a PISCES platform, as well as onwards transfers to end purchasers resulting from trading on a PISCES platform, for the duration of the PISCES sandbox: HMRC: Stamp Duty and Stamp Duty Reserve Tax – power to make FMI sandbox related changes and exemptions for PISCES: Policy paper.
When we responded to the Government's consultation on PISCES, which ran from 6 March to 17 April 2024, we made the point that the PISCES proposals would be more likely to gain traction with investors if PISCES share transfers were exempted from stamp taxes, as is already the case for shares traded on the AIM market. In its policy paper, the Government agrees that removing a Stamp Duty and SDRT change "will help increase the attractiveness and overall participation on a PISCES platform." Incentivising the use of PISCES is intended in turn to support companies to scale up and grow, providing liquidity and helping shareholders, including employee shareholders, to realise their gains, and providing an opportunity to companies to rationalise their shareholder base. The Government also believes that companies using PISCES may also find it easier to raise capital privately outside of the platform by being connected to a wider group of potential investors.
We identified in our consultation response some other issues that will need to be addressed in order to make PISCES workable – please see our May briefing: Intermittent trading venue for private companies: shaping the "PISCES" framework.
The legislation to introduce the Stamp Duty and SDRT exemptions will be introduced in the Finance Bill 2025. In the meantime, we await the Government's response to the PISCES consultation, which the Budget policy paper confirms will be published "in due course".