Member Article

LEBC designates a Capital Gains Tax week

LEBC Group has designated next week, from 16 March, as Capital Gains Tax week. LEBC Group’s Divisional Director, Kay Ingram says, “The annual tax free allowance of £11,000 of gains often goes unclaimed and unused that is why we are highlighting the opportunity for individuals to review their investments and consider realising gains and losses before 5 April.

“By doing so up to £3,080 of tax can be saved each year and over a period of time this can make a significant difference to the value of investments retained.

“Married couples and civil partners each have the ability to transfer assets between them with no tax charge applying, so that if one of them owns an asset which includes gains they can effectively double up the tax free allowance to £22,000.”

Investment gains realised can be invested in New Individual Savings Accounts (Nisas) where they will be tax free. By realising gains at the end of one tax year, they can be rolled over into the new tax year’s Nisa allowance which for 2015-16 will be £15,240.

For those with larger gains, such as the sale of a property it may also be worth realising any losses made on other investments as these can be offset against gains in the same tax year and carried forward indefinitely to be offset against future years’ gains.

For those with a very high risk appetite and capacity to losing significant capital, gains can also be rolled over into tax efficient Enterprise Investment Schemes (EIS) where the gain can then be deferred during the life of the EIS investment and with 30% tax relief also available.

Ingram concluded, “Certain investments which can be structured to produce predictable gains on a regular basis can also be used to provide a stream of regular payments. As they are taxed as gains they are tax free up to the £11,000 pa allowance and these are often used to fund regular commitments such as school fees.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by LEBC Group Ltd .