FSB calls in former Treasury expert for CGT proposals

The Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) has commissioned Ernst & Young’s Chris Sanger, the original architect of the capital gains tax (CGT) taper relief scheme, to come up with alternatives to Alistair Darling’s plans to abolish it.

The FSB has submitted a comprehensive report to the Chancellor, who is expected to make a statement on CGT next week. The FSB’s proposals would mitigate the damage of the plan to scrap taper relief on CGT in April 2008, which has enraged the UK’s 4.5 million-strong small business community.

The UK’s biggest business organisation argued that the country’s entrepreneurial culture would be damaged and that small business owners planning to sell their businesses to pay for their retirement would see their tax bills rocket overnight.

The FSB has proposed a new Entrepreneurs’ Relief, which would apply to owner-managers of small businesses as well as business angels. The proposals would:

• Provide a 50% relief on capital gains up to a limit of £750,000, which equates to an effective tax rate of 9%
• Make it easy to identify who would qualify for the relief;
• Encourage serial entrepreneurship and prevent entrepreneurs from leaving the UK, which could in turn increase the overall tax take from them; and
• Simplify the capital gains tax system in line with the Chancellor’s intentions.

John Wright, FSB National Chairman, said:

“We’re pleased the Chancellor has acknowledged the outrage in the small business community about the plans to abolish taper relief on CGT and welcome the opportunity to put forward some alternatives.

“Thousands of small business owners and investors in new business ideas would have suffered from the Chancellor’s decision.

“Our proposals, produced in consultation with the UK’s leading expert on CGT, would protect small business owners that have worked hard over many years to build up a business and want to sell it to pay for their retirement. They would also ensure that the investment in new business ideas that underpins the future of the UK economy could be maintained.”

ENDS

Notes to Editors:

1. For a copy of the FSB’s recommendations to the Chancellor please go to www.fsb.org.uk or email simon.briault@fsb.org.uk, stephen.alambritis@fsb.org.uk or belinda.webb@fsb.org.uk.

2. The FSB is Britain’s biggest business organisation with over 210,000 members. It exists to protect and promote the interests of the self-employed, and all those who run their own business. More information is available at www.fsb.org.uk.

Contacts:

For interviews with FSB Chief Spokesman Stephen Alambritis or other senior FSB personnel please contact the FSB Press Office.

FSB Press Office

Simon Briault: 020 7592 8128 / 07917 628998

Belinda Webb: 020 7592 8121 / 07825 125 695

For regional FSB contacts please go to www.fsb.org.uk/regions