UK Investment Managers' Association Urges UK Parties To Meet Investors' Needs

by Carla Johnson, InvestorsOffshore.com

14 May 2001

The Association of Private Client Investment Managers & Stockbrokers (Apcims) has presented to the treasury divisions of the three main UK political parties an investors charter for the next parliament comprising policies which the association believes can stimulate savings and investment for the future.

The charter comprehensively covers three key issues of radically simplifying the tax system, ensuring the system is equitable and placing the UK in a more internationally competitive position. Brian Mairs, head of information at Apcims, explained: 'Simplification will look at capital gains tax and ensuring that private investors are being properly served by the tax system. International competitiveness will focus on the abolition of stamp duty because we are just about the last country to impose it.'

According to the association there are several measures that could be adopted to simplify the capital gains tax such as 're-basing' the value of assets to April 1998 as the 'appropriate starting point for new taper reliefs' and raising the threshold on gains 'above which [the tax] is paid to £25,000.'

Although stamp duty, said Apcims, is a simple method of raising a significant amount of revenue for the government it 'adds to the cost of trading in UK quoted securities and will at some point leave the UK disadvantaged as a place in which to do business because of this increased cost.' Most other European countries have either reduced or scrapped stamp duty with the exception of Ireland and Belgium.

'At the moment stamp duty brings in more than £3bn to the exchequer so we can't expect them to simply abolish it but we do want to see a series of steps to diminish the stamp duty revenue over the years,' Mr Mairs said.

Apcims has also called for the further simplifying of the ISA scheme and the reform of the pension annuity rules to removed the 75-year age limit on annuity purchases. Furthermore, the association is keen to see the government overhaul the taxation of trusts which would allow pensioners and legal minors to reclaim tax dividends.

Mr Mairs claimed: 'Retirement issues in particular are a problem. Annuities need to be reviewed and the drawdown date needs to be moved back to when people can reasonable expect to live to around 84 rather than 75. If you get a lump sum from your employer when you retire then you should be able to put it into a tax shelter, rather than be levied for capital gains. We want to see a special retirement Isa where you could put up to £30,000 in a wrapper, it wouldn't cost the treasury very much but would be a significant aid to investors.'

Apcims represents the majority of private client stockbrokers and investment managers in the UK as well as 12 million of the country's individual shareholders. The full text of Apcim's charter entitled 'Stimulating Savings and Investment in the Next Parliament and Beyond' can be found in PDF format at: http://www.apcims.co.uk

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