Readers’ forum: Time to act

I read Gavin Fernandes’ recent article ‘2020 vision’ Taxation 1 August 2019 (tinyurl.com/yy4s3l7p) on the changes to only or main residence relief with great interest because I have a couple of clients who stand to lose valuable relief if they make a disposal on or after 6 April next year.

I’ve discussed with both of them whether they can bring the date of disposal forward into this tax year but they are not in a position to do this.

They have asked me whether there is anything which they can do to lock in the relief now even if they don’t sell until next year. I recall that when retirement relief was being withdrawn it was relatively easy to drop shares into a trust to preserve the relief without triggering a tax charge.

It seems to me that such a simple solution would...