Tax-free investing

Venture Capital Trusts (VCTs) have been one of the major success stories of recent years. But like many investment products, they have taken several years to become fully established. Introduced in 1995, they were viewed with suspicion and dismissed as too risky for a long time. But people have slowly come to feel more comfortable with them, encouraged no doubt by the superb returns from some of the leading funds as we approach the end of the initial five-year period. Values of more than £2 for each £1 invested are not unusual, a net return of 150% on a net cost of 80p. The VCT market is...