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Government should take a more consistent approach to its various investment strategies, the director general of the Tax Incentivised Savings Association has claimed.
Tony Vine-Lott had a meeting with Kitty Ussher, economic secretary to the Treasury, last week to raise his concerns in the weeks before the Pre-Budget Report due in December.
Mr Vine-Lott said: "One of the things we have been pushing for is more consistency in the investment strategies and look and feel of the various government incentivised schemes. An example of that is that you can transfer Isas, pensions and child trust funds yet if you transfer a bond it is a taxable event as effectively you closing one bond and opening a new one. It gets taxed on the way through.
"Since the capital gains tax changes, there is a huge drop in the sale of bonds. Bonds have evolved over the last 20 years and people should be able to transfer them without being taxed. It could kick start the bond market again.
"Every year we send in a submission to the Treasury about six weeks before before going to see the economic secretary and then a few later we will see the civil servants to go through the proposals in more details."
Tisa also wants the government to increase the Isa limit to £9600, at the moment it is £7200 and last year increased it by £200. The association added that the tax advantages that go with Isas disappear when a spouse or civil partner dies.
Mr Vine-Lott concluded: "The Isa dies with the person. Tisa thinks the money saved in an Isa is family income, which has been saved by the family, albeit in an account owned by one of them. Surely the family should have the tax benefit of owning that Isa."
The Welsh Assembly has recently proposed topping up the Child Trust Fund when the child reaches school age by £50, something the Tisa thinks should be rolled out nationally.
He said: "It is another way of getting parents engaged in their child's CTF. The advantage of that is, there is about 28 per cent of CTFs are set up by the government. Children start school at five and at the very least the school can pick up on the initiative.
"It will encourage the child and the parent to get more involved in the product."
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