Trying to automate CGT advice, but not doing very well

Capital Gains Tax (CGT) accounted for just over £10 billion in tax receipts in 2020/21. In terms of the UK's overall tax revenue that is quite a small number and so it's unsurprising that we find that people ask us most queries about that tax. It's probably the one that they have to think about least, well, if you ignore Inheritance Tax and Stamp Duty Land Tax.

Over the years we have made some big inroads in trying to making CGT easier to understand.

We developed our VtaxP tools to help sole traders and company owners navigate their way through the complex web that are the rules for Business Asset Disposal Relief.

Having plugged that gap, there was another 'leak' and we noticed a lot more queries in two areas. Undeterred, we followed up with two guides to CGT reporting:

CGT what is the date of acquisition or disposal? seems a bit of a stumbling block for many of you and so we created a guide to that.

CGT: How to report CGT? is our guide to reporting and it comes with a useful flowchart to make the rules easier to follow. This guide, despite the flowchart, has attracted more comments than any other guide on our website (other than the guide to the High-Income Child Benefit charge, but that is another story).

Our guide CGT: Reliefs, disposal of a business or its assets is also one of our 'biggest hitters' in terms of our users.

Increasingly, we find that CGT problems are so personal and so diverse that more often than not they require human intervention, even when the 'AI' knows the rules. With that in mind, CGT features quite highly in our Virtual Tax Partner Practical Tax conference on 12 and 13 October 2021. Whether you would like to update your know-how on CGT business disposals or get a heads up on the really useful, but horribly complicated business reorganisations rules, do join us on both days.