They will each be able to put up to £3000 into a mini cash ISA each year

They will each be able to put up to £3,000 into a mini cash ISA each year.Further changes to simplify investing include relaxing PEP rules so that they can be invested in as many companies as ISAs can and can be split up between fund managers.While these changes were welcomed, some fund managers expressed disappointment that Mr Brown did not simplify the ISA rules. Peter Shipp, chief executive of the PEP and ISA Managers’ Association, said: “We keep asking for simplification as the system is too complex. We want to see the rules change so that you simply cannot exceed your allowance of £7,000 a year.”Currently, as well as not being allowed to put more than £7,000 into ISAs in any one year, investors are also not allowed to take out both a shares and cash ISA simultaneously. Thousands of investors who misunderstood these rules last year were forced to forfeit their second ISA and any benefit accrued.There has also been a call for reform of annuities. Mr Brown did not take the industry’s advice that the compulsory age for purchasing annuities should be increased from 75 to 80 to reflect longer life expectancy and to increase flexibility.There was also no announcement on “baby bonds”, a tax-advantageous way to save for children, which the Government had previously said it was considering.. “Rewards for entrepreneurship” were provided with with a doubling of the amount of share options that small, growing companies will be able to grant to employees to Enterprise Management Incentives (EMI) to £3m. “Rewards for entrepreneurship” were provided with with a doubling of the amount of share options that small, growing companies will be able to grant to employees to Enterprise Management Incentives (EMI) to £3m.
Under the Enterprise Management Initiative (EMI) scheme, which was introduced in last year’s Budget, the limit on the number of employees in each company who are entitled to hold options will also be removed.

The measures should boost small companies, enabling them to attract and retain the highly-skilled staff they need in order to expand.The measures, based on changes proposed in November’s pre-Budget Report, remove previous restrictions limiting EMI to 15 employees.Douglas Godden, head of the economic policy and enterprise group at the Confederation of British Industry, said: “This is certainly a step in the right direction. When the scheme was designed only key employees could benefit. But now it has been extended, a small company can use it for all their staff. The concept has changed: those start-ups which can’t give staff a big salary or job security can now give them a slice of the action instead.”Larger companies will also benefit from changes to the new All-Employee Share Ownership Plan (Aesop), making the plan easier for companies to administer. Capital gains tax taper relief treatment of business assets will also be extended to employees of non-trading companies as long as they do not have a material interest of more than 10 per cent in the company.”Employee share ownership is increasingly being recognised as a major driver of improved productivity … The new features that the Chancellor has announced will help companies to extend employee share ownership further,” said Stephen Timms, Financial Secretary to the Treasury. “They will support the Government’s productivity drive by increasing employees’ commitment to the success and growth of the companies they work for.”Despite the measures, industry insiders are disappointed that Gordon Brown did not take the opportunity to make bigger changes.

There were hopes that he would tweak EMI to allow larger companies to qualify. At present, a company must have a market capitalisation of less than £15m to benefit, which is considered by many to be too low.The Chancellor was also criticised for not relaxing the rules regarding the structure of qualifying companies. “A number of technical rules continue to limit the companies who can benefit from the EMI scheme,” said Mr Godden. “One particular rule is that if a company owns between 50 and 75 per cent of another company, it is excluded from the scheme.”Alex Henderson, tax partner at Andersen, agreed. “There are lots of restrictions as to what companies can and can’t invest in.