While we’ve yet to hear anything officially it appears that the chancellor has made a slight concession to his Pre-Budget Report (PBR) proposed changes to capital gains tax (CGT).

In the PBR he proposed to withdraw taper relief, which potentially meant that gains on the disposal of business assets were taxed at only 10%, and instead introduce a single CGT rate of 18%.

This was a body-blow to entrepreneurs and owner-managers and also those millions of employees who have shares or options in their employing company. It is a complete reversal of the encouragement given to innovation and entrepreneurship that his predecessor and now prime minister Gordon Brown made so much about.

Now it seems the chancellor might be about to introduce some form of retirement relief, whereby a certain amount of the gain when an owner-manager retires from the business will be exempt from CGT. But we’re told the exempt amount will be several tens of thousands, maybe £100,000. But this is a mere drop in the ocean.

It’s hardly likely to encourage entrepreneurs to take business risks in order to build a successful business, and certainly no hope to serial entrepreneurs who are the lifeblood of innovation in the UK.

Of course, it would be churlish to dismiss the apparent gesture out of hand, but it is certainly not a U-turn and is unlikely to satisfy all those who have been calling for a complete re-think. While I will reserve final judgement until I see the full picture I am unlikely to be saying much that is complimentary.

And this does nothing to address the concern that short-term speculative investors will soon be paying the same rate of tax as those who invest in the growth economy of the UK. So can we have certainty please, and recognition that entrepreneurship is vital and needs every encouragement it can get. 

Andrew Jupp is national head of tax for the Tenon Group