A surprise U-turn by Gordon Brown means you will not be able to stuff your self-invested personal pension (Sipp) with residential property or fine wine. But the chancellor has not been a total party-pooper.
You can still hold unquoted shares in a Sipp from 6 April, says Josephine Combo in the Financial Times. At the moment, you can only hold unquoted shares in a pension if you have an employer-sponsored, small self-administered scheme (SSAS) and the number of shares is strictly limited.
However, all this will change in a few months, when private companies will get tax breaks of up to 40% to buy capital in their own firm. So, if you need to inject some capital into the business, you could issue some shares for the Sipp to buy.
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Of course, it's not a good idea to pour 100% of your Sipp into risky, unlisted shares. You might also have some trouble finding a genial Sipp provider, because of problems with accurate valuations. But at least the chancellor hasn't noticed yet.
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