Pre-owned asset tax tramples fair principles

What is the British government up to? With the debacle surrounding the introduction of the pre-owned asset tax, it has not only caused a huge amount of turbulence in the life of industry, but has also given out highly mixed messages regarding whether we should be encouraged to save. When Chancellor Gordon Brown warned that inheritance tax schemes would be targeted in the Finance Bill 2004, there was a natural assumption that 'normal' investors would not be hit; that only obscure, highly complex schemes that allowed HNWIs to get away tax- free would come under the hammer. Then it was an...