One in four people don’t really care about the abolition of stamp duty on Aim shares
From today investors who buy shares in junior stock market listed companies – the hundreds listed on London’s alternative investment market (Aim)– who will not have to pay the 0.5 per cent stamp duty or stamp duty reserve tax on the shares, making them cheaper to buy and own.
The move was introduced by chancellor George Osborne in his 2013 budget to boost retail investment into smaller companies struggling to attract capital, but according to a poll by Barclays today one in four of us say it will have no impact at all on the decision to buy more Aim shares.
The survey, conducted by Barclays Stockbrokers, polled a sample of 560 of its investors and found – shock horror – that more people would buy the shares if they were cheaper, with 35.7 per cent citing the removal of the tax as a spur to buy shares.
But a surprise 26.61 per cent said they already owned Aim stocks and that the removal of the tax said it did not mean they would consider further investment. Another 18.57 per cent said they didn’t own any Aim shares but the abolition of the stamp would make them consider an investment.
The poll is of course a snap shot of investor sentiments and may not reflect broader trends but the less-than-enthusiastic response of such a high number of investors to the change doesn’t bode well for the future impact of the new policy