Government tipped to allow crowdfunding investments into ISAs

UKCFA Director, Bruce Davis, one of the founders of peer-to-peer lender Zopa, hopes chancellor George Osborne will make an announcement about crowdfunding in the Autumn Statement.

The government has already opened up ISAs to AIM shares but it is now under pressure to cast the net even wider to allow crowdfunding investments to be held inside the tax efficient wrapper.

Bruce Davis, one of the founders of peer-to-peer lender Zopa and now managing director of Abundance Generation, which allows individuals to buy renewable energy bonds for as little as £5 through its crowdfunding platform, is lobbying the government to allow crowdfunding investments to be held in ISAs.

Until now, the argument against allowing crowdfunding investments – whether that be buying shares in a company or buying the debt issued by a company – has been that the companies that use crowdfunding platforms are not listed.

However, Davis said the decision to allow unlisted AIM shares to be held in ISAs, a decision that the government announced in July, has made the possibility of including crowdfunding investments more realistic.

Davis hopes chancellor George Osborne will make an announcement in the Autumn Statement next week about crowdfunding.