JV or not JV?

IN THE 2001 Budget report which led to the expansion of enterprise management incentives (EMI) Gordon Brown stated that 'the Government's long-term ambition is to close the productivity gap between the UK and its main competitors. The Government's strategy focuses on the five drivers of productivity growth: competition enterprise and innovation skills investment and public sector productivity.' The report cited the expansion of EMI as a means to achieve 'enterprise and innovation'. This followed hot on the heels of relaxation to the enterprise investment scheme (EIS) and venture capital trust (VCT) rules and the introduction of the corporate venturing scheme (CVS) the previous year. As readers will be aware in order to target those reliefs as intended (and to avoid opportunities for abusing them!) the rules have become tortuous at best unintelligible at worst. One of the many traps for the unwary revolves...