Align capital gains tax and income tax rates to reduce distortions

The rates of capital gains tax and income tax should be more closely aligned and the annual exemption reduced recommends the Office of Tax Simplification (OTS) in its first report on capital gains tax. 

There are 11 recommendations in the report across four interlinked areas where there are policy choices for governments to make. 

Among these are that as suggested in its second inheritance tax report the capital gains uplift on death should be abolished and instead the recipient should be treated as acquiring the assets at the historic base cost of the person who has died. 

Other recommendations include replacing business asset disposal relief with a relief more focused on retirement and abolishing investors’ relief.

The OTS’s proposals would ‘upend much of the tax system’ according to Graham Boar partner at UHY Hacker Young. He said: ‘It’s hard to see how this would create a...