10% CGT rate.

TBC15

Which ever party wins the next election they are going to be looking for money. An obvious source would be scraping the 10% CGT rate. Is it worth maximizing the capital gains now to use up the 10% rate for this year?

masonic

I'd say there's plenty of scope to increase it, and almost no chance of it being cut. So just as it made sense to make the most of the annual exempt amount before that was slashed, it may be worth making use of this band to avoid carrying large gains into future tax years. Aside from any changes, your future income might limit your access to this rate. The optimal solution would be to bed&ISA or bed&SIPP.

ColdIron

I'd say that would be a prudent move. You might also ponder tax on unsheltered dividends which may be harmonised with income tax. 20% and no allowance. Remember there was no tax on dividends for a basic rate taxpayer only 8 years ago (except the silly notional tax credit). I'm not sure what you do about that

kempiejon

TBC15 said:

Which ever party wins the next election they are going to be looking for money. An obvious source would be scraping the 10% CGT rate. Is it worth maximizing the capital gains now to use up the 10% rate for this year?

I've used my full tax allowances on my investments for years, making ongoing sales each year to move investments to sheltered accounts SIPP and ISA. That's kept my tax bill quite low. The risk with doing that now is other unsheltered holding pregnant with gains might be subject to corporate actions before tax year end triggering another capital gains tax event.
The speculation as to which taxes will change, when. post announcement. the changes will come and whether those changes could be mitigated by individuals selling now is frankly unknowable. If it helps you feel relaxed about your investments sell now.

dunstonh

You can see onshore and offshore bonds coming back into fashion very quickly if they alter unwrapped investment taxation.   

talexuser

I would have thought taxing offshore investment would be the first thing to do for a patriotic government wishing investment in the UK? 

aroominyork

This made me think what I would do. I figure I would sell my unwrapped global equity tracker and buy a low coupon nominal gilt with a duration similar to a gilt index fund - something like TG33 - and sell my wrapped gilt index fund and buy the global equity tracker. Then I thought that since it will take me a few years to wrap my unwrapped investments and I will probably have to pay some CGT to sell enough of the equity tracker to fully use my annual ISA allowance and SIPP salary cap, maybe this would be a sensible thing to do with some of my unwrapped funds even if the rules do not change.

Rollinghome

It might look good politically to raise the rate but raise the allowance back up a bit.  Without all the first-time CGT payers having to declare tiny sums it might become possible to contact HMRC again.

ColdIron

Londonlisa12 said:

talexuser said:

I would have thought taxing offshore investment would be the first thing to do for a patriotic government wishing investment in the UK? 

And you think they are not going to increase tax and lower allowances on UK investments 😂😂😂

It's nothing new

Before 2016 there was no tax payable on dividends for a basic rate taxpayer. Osborne introduced a tax of 7.50% but with a £5,000 allowance, Phillip Hammond reduced it to £2,000. Sunak increased the rate to 8.75% along with NI to pay for social care. Kwarteng scrapped the 1.25% on NI but not on dividends. Hunt reduced the allowance to £1,000 and then the £500 we have today (which saves a princely £43.75)

The direction of travel is as clear as the nose on you face

Hoenir

No reason why capital gains shouldn't be treated any differently to income. Bring them into line. Simplfying the tax  system is beneficial to all. 

dunstonh

Guessing what Governments will do with tax is usually futile but they do have a habit of repeating themselves and they have a habit of following Australia.    Australia has no CGT but gains are taxed as income.