Pre Budget Report 2009 - Capital Gains Tax

The annual exemption for CGT is not announced at the PBR. As it usually changes by the same amount as the personal allowances, it is likely to remain unchanged at £10,100 for 2010/11.

There was some speculation in advance of the PBR that the Chancellor might do something to address the large and increasing difference between the top rate of income tax (rising from 40% to 50%) and the CGT rate (18%). This is clearly an incentive to invest for capital rather than income returns, but no measures were announced to counter it. There are already plenty of anti-avoidance rules to stop artificial attempts to turn what is really an income profit into something that is taxable as a gain, and HMRC must believe that those existing rules are enough for the moment.