Tories give tax cut clue
The Conservatives have given the first major hint that they are planning to offer voters a tax cut since David Cameron took over as the party’s leader.
Shadow chancellor George Osborne told the Sunday Telegraph that he was considering a proposal to abolish stamp duty on shares as part of a package of measures to boost the value of pension funds and increase competitiveness.
The government abolished tax relief on pension fund trading in 1998.
According to a pamphlet to be published tomorrow by rightist think tank the Bow Group, cutting stamp duty on shares would put some £4 billion back into the stock market and boost share values by about £80 billion.
The Conservatives claim that such a move would increase the average pension fund by £8,000.
Mr Osborne told the newspaper that new taxation on personal pensions instigated by Gordon Brown represented the chancellor’s “single most destructive” act in overseeing the country’s economy.
“Repairing the damage done to the pensions system has got to be a top priority for the next Conservative government,” he said.
“Sadly, simply reversing the pensions tax he imposed in 1998 wouldn’t work, as many final salary schemes have closed.”
“We need to look at new ways of repairing the damage and that is why I am particularly keen to look at stamp duty on shares,” he added.
The announcement of plans to consider abolishing stamp duty on shares comes ahead of a report by the party’s commission on tax, due out in October.
Denouncing the proposal, the government stressed that the abolition of stamp duty on shares would create a £4 billion hole in Britain’s public finances.
