No joy for offshore industry as flat-rate CGT announced

Chancellor Alistair Darling's maiden Budget speech last month did nothing to undo the damage done to confidence in offshore bonds for UK taxpayers following the announcement of a new 18% flat rate of capital gains tax in October's pre-Budget report. The Association of British Insurers (ABI) has been lobbying the Government to grant concessions for both offshore and onshore bonds, which are arguably affected more severely as they have fewer non-tax-related advantages than offshore bonds. However, despite Chancellor Darling's assurances that discussions were ongoing at the time of his cli...