Changed to capital gains tax

[BuyHoldRinseRepeat]

Hi all,

I know the government is currently looking to reform tax and CGT is on their target list. I am aware that the autumn budget has been postponed but will probably be announced after Christmas sometime.

My question is as follows:
Can the government make a change to the tax rules and retrospectively ask for tax? for example if i have already made a £5000 capital gain this tax year which is well within the current £12300 tax free allowance, can the government say right as of tomorrow we are scrapping the CGT allowance, you now owe us tax on the £5000 capital gain you have already made earlier in the year?

Thanks

[AGoodman]

In theory they probably could (Parliament is Sovereign etc) but there is no precedent for historic transactions so this is extremely unlikely for the current tax year.

Not least because they have already passed a Finance Act setting out the tax rates and allowances for the current tax year.

There is precedent for changing the rules for future transactions in the same tax year but this has only, so far as I recall, been for transactions from the date of the announcement (e.g. to stop an avoidance scheme or increase stamp duty). The one exception was that changes might be slipped into the Finance Bill between the budget date (usually March under the old system) and the passing of the Finance Act in July/August which would have applied from 6 April that year. These were usually seen (by HMRC at least) as small changes to a proposal that had been announced in the budget (perhaps because it was pointed out the draft legislation didn't work) rather than wholly new ideas.

In conclusion: no

[BuyHoldRinseRepeat]

In theory they probably could (Parliament is Sovereign etc) but there is no precedent for historic transactions so this is extremely unlikely for the current tax year.

Not least because they have already passed a Finance Act setting out the tax rates and allowances for the current tax year.

There is precedent for changing the rules for future transactions in the same tax year but this has only, so far as I recall, been for transactions from the date of the announcement (e.g. to stop an avoidance scheme or increase stamp duty). The one exception was that changes might be slipped into the Finance Bill between the budget date (usually March under the old system) and the passing of the Finance Act in July/August which would have applied from 6 April that year. These were usually seen (by HMRC at least) as small changes to a proposal that had been announced in the budget (perhaps because it was pointed out the draft legislation didn't work) rather than wholly new ideas.

In conclusion: no

Thank you AGoodman. This answers my question. Much appreciated