Income and Corporation Taxes Act 1988

2 (1) The requirement of this paragraph is that the relevant company (whether or not it is resident in the United Kingdom) must be an unquoted company.

(2) In this paragraph “unquoted company” means a company none of whose shares, stocks, debentures or other securities is marketed to the general public.

(3) For the purposes of this paragraph shares, stocks, debentures or other securities are marketed to the general public if they are—

(a) listed on a recognised stock exchange,

(b) listed on a designated exchange in a country outside the United Kingdom, or

(c) dealt in on the Unlisted Securities Market or dealt in outside the United Kingdom by such means as may be designated.

(4) In sub-paragraph (3) above “designated” means designated by an order made by the Board for the purposes of that sub-paragraph; and an order made for the purposes of paragraph (b) of that sub-paragraph may designate an exchange by name, or by reference to any class or description of exchanges, including a class or description framed by reference to any authority or approval given in a country outside the United Kingdom.

(5) Section 828(1) does not apply to an order made for the purposes of sub-paragraph (3) above.

(6) Where a company any shares in or securities of which are included in the qualifying holdings of the trust company ceases at any time while the trust company is approved as a venture capital trust to be an unquoted company, the requirements of this paragraph shall be deemed, in relation to shares or securities acquired by the trust company before that time, to continue to be satisfied for a period of five years after that time.