Thousands sign tax petition

News Article - 23 October 2007
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A petition on capital gains tax placed on the Downing Street website has received nearly 12,000 signatures, it has been claimed.

In his pre-Budget report, chancellor Alistair Darling announced that capital gains taper relief would be abolished and a new flat rate of 18 per cent would be introduced.

The petition, which is calling for the chancellor to revoke the proposed changes, argues that the government is "penalising" people who start up businesses by removing "one of the few real incentives to enterprise".

Mike Shaw, director of Hedley Asset Management, told Citywire that the chancellor had been in a "rush" to "upstage" the Conservative party and address the private equity sector.

"I absolutely think that there will be a U-turn as the law of unintended consequences will cost Labour a huge amount of support in the very sector that Gordon Brown spent ten years befriending," he remarked.

On Monday, representatives from the Confederation of British Industry, the British Chambers of Commerce, the Federation of Small Businesses and the Institute of Directors met with Mr Darling to discuss the new reforms.

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