I heard that the government were thinking of taxing capital gains on primary residence. Does anyone know the source for this, I think I heard it on the radio 4 news. I would like to keep a close eye on this, so I can sell up and move to another country before the lunatic idea comes into effect. The very first act labour did that affected me was to abolish mortgage tax relief, putting my mortgage up immediately. Lovely.
Surely the principle would remain that if they were to tax gains, then losses would give rise to relief. If a bust is around the corner, they would be shooting themselves in the foot unless they were certain that the measure would prevent the bust, and not merely put it off.
I started a thread on this on 23/6 basaed upon this new report:
You are aware that this is the norm in many European countries. It's IMHO the main reason that our housing markets are so different. It does have some merits if the system has always been that way but I agree the possibility of moving to it in the UK is not a good idea.
Tim
Not in their lifetime? Losses can be carried forward indefinitely.
Actually, going back a bit, if the bust around the corner is not too fierce, it will merely result in a smaller gain, not a loss, and if there is anticipation that this gain will be taxed, there is an added loss of disincentive to gamble on projects which might involve a capital loss. This is because the loss can be carried forward and set against the future gain.
I would guess that the vast majority of people never pay any capital gains tax in their lifetime. Other than property, the only commonly owned asset I can think of which is likely to appreciate in value is equities, which can either be held in tax free PEP/ISA's, or sold in bits over a number of years to use up the annual allowance.
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