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Second phase of CGT review

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Responding to the second stage of the OTS general review of CGT, the CIOT highlights a number of issues:

  • any extension of holdover relief (to introduce a general gifts relief) would need to be fully considered, including the implications for trusts and corporate capital gains;
  • the private residence relief rules should be simplified to enable taxpayers to establish their CGT liability easily, in particular looking at: how a main residence is defined, lettings relief, lettings trades, home-office use, job-related accommodation and periods of absence;
  • the rules on transfers of assets between spouses/civil partners on separation and divorce are also unnecessarily complex, and an extension to the no gain/no loss treatment to a period of two years from the end of the tax year of permanent separation would resolve most of the issues;
  • the complexities of dealing with deferred consideration (in particular Marren v Ingles rights) could be resolved by taxing unascertainable consideration on receipt as a disposal of the original asset (and not a chose in action);
  • the 5% test of ownership in business asset disposals relief (formerly entrepreneurs’ relief) gives rise to potential distortions in behaviour of taxpayers and a trap on inadvertent dilution, and the CIOT also notes that the additional requirements for the 5% test relating to economic ownership are complex to apply and likely to be unfamiliar to many claiming BADR;
  • the lack of information about holdover claims made in the past is a common problem for property disposals and the CIOT encourages individuals and their agents to record the relevant details when made or incurred in the personal tax account.
Issue: 1509
Categories: News
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