.png)
.png)
New rules on capital gains tax set out by the Chancellor are in contradiction to laws laid out by the EU, the world's first professional body of accountants has claimed.
The Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland (ICAS) has asserted that taxpayers must be provided with a reasonable period of time to assert their right to claim relief.
The organisation, which received its royal charter in 1854, added that previous legal decisions indicate that a transitional period of 90 days — longer than the time period proposed in Alistair Darling's change to CGT - is insufficient.
ICAS said it welcomes any move that simplifies taxation — but it objects to the timing of the recent unveiling of a new entrepreneurs' relief.
ICAS director of taxation Derek Allen commented: 'Taxpayers now have fewer than ten weeks to rearrange their assets and, if necessary, try to arrange a disposal to protect some of the indexation relief, which may have accrued because of inflation between 1982 and 1998.
'it is wrong to tax inflationary gains, and it would be contrary to European law to deny taxpayers sufficient transitional time to rearrange their affairs before the new legislation is enacted.'
He continued: 'It would be irresponsible to enact complex changes and not give a sufficient transitional period for taxpayers to consider the implications and arrange their affairs properly.
'At the very least, the Chancellor should defer the implementation of this legislation for up to two years.
'If this is not possible, he should still allow taxpayers who owned assets at 6 October 2007 a period of up to two years to sell those assets and gain the benefit of indexation allowance.'
