TIMES ONLINE: The Prime Minister this morning gave no immediate reassurance to hundreds of thousands of stock market speculators and second home owners who are scrambling to offload their assets to avoid the threat of higher Capital Gains Tax.
Questioned about the growing fury in the ranks of his own backbenchers about the government’s proposed tax raid on wealth, David Cameron would say only that entrepreneurs would be exempted from higher tax rates that would damage small businesses.
He showed no signs of backing down in the face of the campaign mounted by the former Cabinet minister John Redwood and the former shadow home secretary David Davis to protect the investments of retired people and the better off - many of them grassroots Tory supporters in the shires.
The coalition is proposing to raise CGT, currently set at 18 per cent on all gains over £10,100 a year, to a level closer to that of income tax - potentially up to 40 or even 50 per cent.
The move, which is integral to the coalition deal with the Liberal Democrats and expected to form part of the Chancellor’s emergency budget on June 22, is threatening the coalition with its first serious rift. >>> Jenny Booth | Thursday, May 27, 2010
