Market leading insight for tax experts
View online issue

Plans to restrict income tax loss reliefs are put on hold

printer Mail

HMRC will monitor the effect of several recent policy initiatives to tackle tax avoidance before considering whether to proceed with measures proposed last year to counter avoidance involving income tax loss reliefs.

HMRC will monitor the effect of several recent policy initiatives to tackle tax avoidance before considering whether to proceed with measures proposed last year to counter avoidance involving income tax loss reliefs.

A consultation launched in June 2011 explored ‘ways of ensuring that genuine business losses and employment losses are relieved while effectively deterring taxpayers from entering into tax avoidance arrangements intended to exploit these loss reliefs’. Possible options included the restriction of loss relief to £25,000.
 
In a response document published yesterday HMRC noted that a cap on income tax reliefs, proposed at Budget 2012, would affect the amounts of loss relief that may be claimed against general income and ‘as such can be expected to impact on avoidance behaviours’.
 
The proposed general anti-abuse rule was ‘likely to affect at least some of the schemes that seek to exploit loss reliefs against general income and gains’, HMRC added.
 
This news story was first published on 1 August 2012
EDITOR'S PICKstar
Top