Schedule 11 (Hansard, 4 July 1968)

§ Mr. Taverne
I beg to move Amendment No. 56, in page 78, line 9, after 'assessment', insert: 'or accounting period of a company'. I wonder, Mr. Deputy Speaker, if, in moving this Amendment, I may refer to the following Amendments: Nos. 57, 58, 59, 60 and 65. All are concerned with the same point.

§ Mr. Deputy Speaker (Sir Eric Fletcher)
If the House so pleases, so be it.

§ Mr. Taverne
These six Amendments amend provisions in the Capital Gains Tax law which contain elections for the taxpayer to have his liability to tax on capital gains paid in one way rather than another. The effect of the Amendments is that, in the case of a company, the time limit for the election to be made is related to the date at which the company's accounting period ends instead of the end of the year of assessment, which remains the date for individuals. The end of the accounting period is the natural and sensible date to use in the case of companies. Indeed, the Amendments 1744 have the support of the accountancy profession.
The three decisions with which the Amendments are concerned are, first, the election under paragraph 25 to Schedule 6 to the Finance Act to have the gain on certain assets which were acquired before 6th April, 1965 computed by reference to their value at 6th April, 1965 and not on a time apportionment basis. The second election with which the Amendments are concerned is the election under Section 33 of the Finance Act, 1967, under which a taxpayer can elect to have gain on disposals of land with development value computed, not by reference to changes in its current value, but by reference to changes in its overall value. The third provision is that under Schedule 11 to the Bill, under which a taxpayer may elect to have his gain on quoted shares or securities acquired before 6th April, 1965 computed solely by reference to their value at that date.
The time limit for these elections would in all cases run out at the end of the second year of assessment; that is, the second year following the year of assessment in which the disposal was made. Under the Amendments the time limit for companies would be two years after the end of the accounting period in which the disposal was made. The position now is that, both for individuals and for companies, the election period is two years from the date when he would normally be considering his tax affairs. I repeat that this has the support of the accountancy profession. I therefore hope that the Amendments will commend themselves to the House.

§ Mr. Michael Shaw (Scarborough and Whitby)
On behalf of the accountancy profession, I welcome the Amendment and thank the hon. and learned Gentleman. I tabled Amendments to achieve some, though not all, of the objectives outlined by the hon. and learned Gentleman. Those Amendments were not called, but on reflection I accept that the wording tabled by the Government is much more comprehensive than that I used in Committee.

§ Mr. Taverne
I should perhaps have expressed my thanks before to the hon. Members for Scarborough and Whitby (Mr. Michael Shaw) and for Yeovil (Mr. Peyton), who were associated with the 1745 Amendment which, if it commends itself to the House, will find itself in the Bill.