Changes to UK tax postponed (2/12/21 )

On the 30th November the UK Treasury wrote to the office of Tax Simplification in response to the OTS suggestion of raising the rate of CGT and lowering the annual allowances. In the letter (a link can be found here) the Treasury passed over the suggestion, implying that the recommendations are off the table for the short to medium term. The Treasury also rejected making any changes to inheritance tax, which means that the two significant IhT reliefs of Agricultural Property Relief (APR) and Business Property Relief (BPR) remain, as does the seven-year period for gifts and transfers to drop out of a donors or settlors estate. This means that our inhouse IhT portfolios will remain as tax-efficient as before, and it gives a window of as much as five years (though it could be less with a new government) to continue with conventional tax and estate planning.