It appears that the new coalition government remains committed to increasing the rate of Capital Gains Tax (CGT) to a level in line with income tax. There are many reasons why this is a bad idea. For example, CGT represents
double taxation and also creates
disincentives to save . In addition, since the tax is only levied when assets are sold, it creates a “lock-in” effect, as people stop selling their assets to postpone the tax.