Fears of an inheritance tax (IHT) raid in the budget have led to a near-£6 billion crash in the value of Britain’s Aim stock market for smaller companies as investors have rushed to ditch their shares.
In a tax break designed to encourage people to invest in small firms, Aim shares are exempt from inheritance tax as long as the owner has held them for two years before they die.
But chancellor Rachel Reeves is widely thought to be planning to reduce or even scrap the perk altogether in Wednesday’s budget.
The Aim index has fallen 11.5 per cent since the election, a decline of £5.9 billion in the value of the firms listed on it. In the same period, the FTSE 100 index of