§ Mr. Beaumont-Darkasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether he has any plans to introduce legislation providing relief from capital gains tax on an exchange of interests in land in the joint beneficial ownership of two or more persons.
§ Mr. MooreThere have been representations over a long period that the tax charge in these circumstances can give rise to hardship. I have therefore authorised the Inland Revenue to introduce an extra-statutory concession which will enable the capital gains tax to be deferred until the disposal of the interest in land acquired as a result of the exchange. This will apply to exchanges which are made after today. The detailed terms of the concession are included in an Inland Revenue press release published today.
It may be possible in due course to legislate on this matter, but in the meantime this is an appropriate way of ensuring that relief is not denied to a very small group of taxpayers where the present law operates unfairly. Detailed information is not available to estimate the cost of this concession, but it is likely to be small.