01: Introduction
Relatively few people pay CGT each year – about 260,000 in 2007/08 according to HMRC estimates - but it can have a very considerable impact when it is payable.
CGT is charged on your net gains, ie the total chargeable gains that you realise on disposals during a tax year after deducting total allowable losses that you have realised in the same year or brought forward from previous years.
There were major changes to CGT announced in the Pre-Budget Report on 9 October 2007, with further amendments revealed in late January 2008. From 6 April 2008, CGT will be charged at a flat rate on all gains. Taper relief and indexation relief will be abolished - but not the other reliefs (e.g. for main residences). There will also be a new 'entrepreneurs' relief' for certain business assets.
Companies are subject to corporation tax on chargeable gains that are calculated according to modified CGT rules.
