Browse Sections

• Business
• Technology
• Greenlife
• Health
• Showbiz
• Education
• Local elections
• Shipman
• Special reports
• User comments

Tories may abolish tax on shares

27/ 8/2006

THE Tories signalled today their first plans to cut taxes since David Cameron became party leader.

Shadow chancellor George Osborne said he was looking at abolishing stamp duty on shares as part of a package to shore up pensions and boost competitiveness.

"Of all the damaging things Gordon Brown has done to the economy, the single most destructive has been the attack on personal pensions," he told The Sunday Telegraph.

"Repairing the damage done to the pensions system has got to be a top priority for the next Conservative government.

"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."

The paper said a pamphlet by the centre-right Bow Group, to be published on Monday, has calculated that abolition would put some '4 billion back into the stock market, adding up to '80 billion to share values and boosting pension funds.

Mr Osborne's comments come ahead of the publication of the report by the Conservatives' policy commission on tax, due out in October.

A further report by the party's competitiveness commission, headed by arch Thatcherite John Redwood, is due out next year.

Mr Cameron and Mr Osborne have so far resisted pressure from the Tory right to promise tax cuts, arguing that the priority must be to ensure economic stability.

However Mr Osborne disclosed one of the areas he was looking at now was taking more low paid people out of tax altogether.

He also said he "basically agreed" with the analysis of Labour former Cabinet minister Stephen Byers that inheritance tax should be scrapped, although he could not give "some cast-iron commitment" to abolish it.

:: A poll by ICM for the Taxpayers' Alliance - which campaigns for lower taxes - found a large majority - 81% to 9% - supported a "significant" increase in the '32,000 threshold for the 40% tax band, taking more people on middle incomes out of that bracket.

The poll, reported in the Sunday Times, also found that when asked if they had thought about leaving Britain and moving abroad, 16% said they had given it "serious thought" while a further 6% said they were planning to do so.

ICM interviewed 1,000 people between July 31 and August 2.

Most recent 2 of 2 user comments