CGT CAMPAIGN GATHERS PACE
ANOTHER influential investor body yesterday pledged their support for City A.M.’s campaign against the new government’s planned hikes to capital gains tax (CGT) – proposals this newspaper believes would unfairly punish private investors and derail enterprise and long-term investment in the UK.
The Association of Private Client Investment Managers and Stockbrokers (APCIMS) has already written to chancellor George Osborne and exchequer secretary to the Treasury David Gauke to warn of the impact of the changes to CGT.
“The introduction of a 40 per cent rate would be severely detrimental,” wrote John Hall, the chairman of APCIMS, whose member firms manage portfolios worth around £335bn.
“It would penalise those who have saved for their old age, it would stifle equity investment (why take the risk?) and send out all the wrong messages about an entrepreneurial Britain.”
City A.M.’s campaign supports a CGT system where rates are tapered down for longer-term investments.
Osborne, who is under pressure from his Lib Dem coalition partners not to renege on a promise to implement the hike, will announce a final decision at the Budget next week.