Company purchase of own shares

5 year ownership rule

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I think I know the answer to this already but thought it prudent to check.

My question is in relation to a company purchase of own shares. The company in question is the holding company of a trading group.  There are two shareholders (owner A and owner B), each owning 50%. The holding company was only set up 3 years ago, before which time the A & B owned the various group companies directly. A now wishes to retire as a result of an uxexpected personal issue.  Is there any way of getting round the 5 year ownership rule? Whilst the holidng company shares have only been held for the 3 years since the company was created, the seller has effectively owned 50% of the whole group for more than 20 years.  I'm sure the answer is no but I live in hope!

On a side note, I suppose the same issue could arise in relation to entrepreneurs relief.  If the holding company had only been set up 12 months ago, would the seller miss out on entrepreneurs relief on a sale of their holding company shares even though they had owned the group for 20 years?

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