Recent Changes in Capital Gains tax

pulsar99

For the past few years we have been careful to plan our exposure to CGT. The latest changes have created a number of problems and we are likely to have some large CGT bills and our plans are in disarray.
We have a second house which we planned to sell next year but will now loose indexation and taper relief. We have a large holding in company loan notes which have to be redeemed over the next five years - we planned to use our annual allowance plus taper relief as we have owned them for many years. Taper relief has now gone and as we are not working will not benefit from the 18% tax band. We also have a reasonable number of shares in a foreign company which we do not need to sell yet.
At present the second house is in my wifes names and she has owned it for around 20 years and I can see, if transferred to me, I will retain indexation.
The loan notes are owned in my wifes names and some in joint names and again owned for say 15 years.
The question is, can loan notes be transferred into my name and would I benefit from any indexation? Or am I getting confused with taper relief which will not exist in the 2008/9 tax year?
Second question is should all shares be changed to my name to benefit from indexation? They are all currently held in my wifes and joint names.
Any ideas would be welcome.

silvercar

At present the second house is in my wifes names and she has owned it for around 20 years and I can see, if transferred to me, I will retain indexation.

I read this in a Sunday Times article this weekend. Transfers between spouses are deemed to have been transferred at the initial purchase cost + indexation.

The question is, can loan notes be transferred into my name and would I benefit from any indexation?

Second question is should all shares be changed to my name to benefit from indexation? They are all currently held in my wifes and joint names.

Again, I see no reason why the same rules wouldn't apply. In the case of jointly owned shares, only half would be subject to indexation as you already own half of them.
I would have thought the same principle would apply.

pulsar99

Thanks for coming back.
I am sure the house advice is good and intend to to do that. As a reminder to anyone else who might do this please make sure any wills are updated to match any changes.
On loan notes we do have a large number for us, but not as large as mentioned but certainly in six digits. These loan notes were aquired when a large company changed hands many times (they originated in the mid 70's)and the final options, for private investors, were loan notes or shares. CGT rules made loan notes attractive.
It does seem difficult to get good specific advice on how handle the loan note issue to try and retain some indexation. With no indexation we will have to pay the tax man a considerable slice of our nest egg.
Thanks again.