The announcement that Capital Gains Tax (CGT) is to be charged at a flat rate of 18% means a tax break for second home owners. CGT is a tax on the difference between what was paid for an asset and what it is sold for. For properties barring the primary residence, CGT is currently 40% for the first three years of ownership, falling to 2% per year to a minimum level of 24% after a decade. From April, when the flat rate of 18% is introduced, the amount second home owners will be asked to pay when they sell will therefore be dramatically less. Liam Bailey from Knight Frank said: 'This will help to underpin demand for second homes and prices of second homes. However, the second home market prices are very expensive in most parts of the UK, and affordability is the key to demand.' The only short term effect which could be seen as a result of this discovery is that people previously intending to sell this year or early 2008 may decide to wait until April to maximise the profit they will make as a result of this change.
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17 outstanding homes for sale across Britain, from under £250k to £6.5 million, as seen in Country LifeSomething for every budget in this week's round up of homes across the country that have come to market via Country Life.
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'We started thinking: if we were going to design a bike for Aston Martin, what would it look like? And then we simply couldn’t stop': Aston's new bike has everything you could ever dream of — except a price tagThe new Aston Martin .1R bicycle, a collaboration with manufacturer J.Laverack, leaves Paul Henderson stirred rather than shaken.
