In the years since the financial crisis, politicians have regularly intoned that the broadest shoulders should bear the biggest burdens. Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer is the latest to step up the rhetoric as he prepares the ground for a tax-raising Budget in October. Owners of businesses and other assets are rushing to pre-empt an expected rise in the capital gains tax rate.
CGT is sometimes depicted as a voluntary tax. That is an exaggeration but investors may well have choices over when and where they pay the tax. Currently they are seeking to accelerate gains by pushing through business sales, liquidating property portfolios and transferring assets into trusts. Some investors may leave Britain, although tax on UK property sales cannot be avoided this way.
