CGT amendments "will add complexity"

News Article - 25 January 2008
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The UK's top accountancy firms have raised a number of concerns over Alistair Darling's amendments to the capital gains tax (CGT) regime.

Yesterday the chancellor announced an entrepreneur's relief of ten per cent on gains up to £1 million. Gains upward of this will be taxed at a flat rate of 18 per cent.

Kevin Nicholson, UK head of entrepreneurs and private companies at PricewaterhouseCoopers, claimed that "frequently tweaking" the tax regime is adding to the complexity of the system.

Although generally praising the changes, Chris Sanger, Ernst & Young's head of tax policy and adviser to the Federation of Small Businesses, raised concerns over the £1 million limit, explaining that it is "a disincentive to continued serial entrepreneurship".

David Kilshaw, head of private client advisory at KPMG in the UK, said yesterday: "The new relief will add complexity. And this complexity will add to the red tape and costs for business."

Until businesses have seen the small print of the new regime, it is impossible to know exactly how much relief it will actually give, he added.

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