With the election starting to draw closer we are starting to see a few questions being asked around the perennial question of capital gains tax.
As with any election campaigning this is always big picture and light on details. It also relies on the party being elected and not having the policy modified by any potential coalition parties. That being said, we have put together a quick summary on some of the parties current thinking on tax.
The big question everyone is talking about is Labour campaigning at this stage on a capital gains tax. Back when the tax working group reported on a capital gains tax they looked at various ways it could be implemented and the challenges this could bring. The present policy favours a valuation day approach. What this means is only the gains from the proposed start date would be taxed. Historic gains would remain outside of the proposed capital gains tax.
The current policy also has a number of carve outs. Essentially its looking more at land rather than other significant areas of capital gain.
The potentially more significant changes are those in the policies of the Green Party and TOP. Included in their policies are an inheritance tax for the Green Party and a Land Value tax for TOP. It should be noted the land value tax is only suggested to apply to land not buildings.
If these policies were to be enacted this could have more impact on existing wealth.
This is all speculation at present and relies on the election results but it will be interesting to see how this plays out as the election draws closer and potentially after.