12. Amendment of section 12 (relief for new shares purchased on issue by employees) of Finance Act, 1986.

As respects the year of assessment 1996-97 and subsequent years of assessment, section 12 of the Finance Act, 1986, is hereby amended -

(a) in paragraph (a) of subsection (1) -

(i) by the substitution of the following definition for the definition of "eligible employee":

"‘eligible employee’, in relation to a qualifying company, means -

(i) where the company is a trading company, a director or an employee of the company, or

(ii) where the company is a holding company, a director or an employee of the company or of a company which is its 75 per cent. subsidiary;",

and

(ii) by the deletion of the definition of "‘full-time director’ and ‘full-time employee’",

and

(b) by the substitution, in the proviso to subsection (2), of "£5,000" for "£3,000" (inserted by the Finance Act, 1993), and the said proviso, as so amended, is set out in the Table to this section.