CG10249 - Anti-forestalling measures for changes announced at 30 October 2024 Budget - Introduction
Throughout this manual, all legislative references are to Taxation of Chargeable Gains Act 1992 (“TCGA92”) unless otherwise stated.
Schedule 2 of Finance Act 2025 contains various “anti-forestalling” rules that deal with arrangements seeking to mitigate the effect of the following changes announced at the Budget on 30 October 2024.
The rules address two circumstances in which it would otherwise be possible to avoid the effect of the announced changes by having the option to trigger a disposal that happens before the date of the change for CGT purposes. These are –
- The use of unconditional contracts, and
- The making of certain elections to disapply the share reorganisation rules.
While there are effectively two rules, they need to be set out separately to address each of the changes announced at Budget 2024. A guide to how the legislation is structured will be included at CG10252 after Finance Bill 2024 has received Royal Assent.
In some cases where the customer considers that the anti-forestalling rules do not apply, they will need to make a claim and declaration to disapply the rules with their tax return, see CG10250.
The rules are based on those introduced when the lifetime limit for Business Asset Disposal Relief was reduced from March 2020, see CG64172 and CG64173.
The rules apply to the following changes announced at Autumn Budget 2024 -
- The increase in CGT rates applying from 30 October 2024.
- The reduction in the lifetime limit of gains qualifying for Investors’ Relief applying from that date.
- The increase in CGT rates applying to disposals qualifying for Business Asset Disposal Relief or Investors’ Relief from 6 April 2025.
See CG10250 for guidance on the rule for unconditional contracts and CG10251 for elections.
There is a similar rule for unconditional contracts that applies to the abolition of the Furnished Holiday Lettings regime from 6 April 2025, see CG73505.