Tax

UK200Group: Government, sort taxes out now

 Print E-mail
Tax
Written by Gary Howes   
Wednesday, 12 May 2010

Clarity needed immediately.

 

The UK200Group of independent quality-assured accountancy and lawyer firms has welcomed the eventual formation of a stable UK government, but called on it to move quickly to remove the uncertainty surrounding its plans on tax.

David Whiscombe, a partner at BKL Tax in London and a member of the Group’s tax panel, said any uncertainty over tax needed to be ended as soon as possible, while he also called for the new Conservative-Lib Dem alliance to protect the interests of entrepreneurs in any changes that take place.

He said: “It is now clear that the Lib Dems’ ‘mansion tax’ plan will be dropped, which is obviously a good thing and I assume the hare-brained idea to levy VAT on new homes will also go. The dropping of the one per cent National Insurance rise is also good news for SMEs, while it seems the commitment to a £1million Inheritance Tax nil rate band will not come in during this parliament.

“It seems to be more or less established that the rate of CGT will increase substantially, perhaps to be at the same rate as income tax, which will require a fundamental re-think of much tax planning that has been undertaken in recent years.

“One hopes that the special position of wealth-creating entrepreneurs will continue to be recognized as it has in the past been recognized through, successively, retirement relief, taper relief and Entrepreneurs’ Relief.  It would be very much welcomed by the owner-managed business community if there could be early confirmation that there is no intention to make any substantial changes to entrepreneurs’ relief and in particular that the increase in the lifetime limit to £2m introduced in the Finance Act 2010 will not be reversed in the lifetime of this parliament.”

He added: “What will also be interesting will be to see the extent to which the Tories’ commitment to support for the family is watered down as a result of the compromises inherent in coalition. Given the ludicrous extent to which the current tax system penalizes one-earner couples, one had hoped that a Tory government would have gone at least some way to remedying this but now I am not so sure.  Any failure to do so would be a grave disappointment.”

 
 
Share this article:
Digg It! Digg it!   Post to del.icio.us del.icio.us   Seed in Newsvine Newsvine   Post to reddit Reddit   Facebook  Stumble It! Stumble It!  

Subscribe to our weekly newsletter for top jobs, news, blogs and more

Get the latest senior finance job roles, news, blogs, features, industry moves and opinion delivered directly to your inbox every week. Sign up here .