Fears over stamp duty crackdown | 2007-12-10 16:30:06

Moves to clamp down on the use of companies to buy and sell residential property could be extended to the commercial property market, advisers fear.

The chancellor last week unveiled moves to prevent people using special purpose vehicles to buy and sell properties, cutting the stamp duty payable to just 0.5%, The Telegraph reported.

Simon Hardwick, a partner at law firm Halliwells, said: 'The residential market is tiny, the commercial market is huge. This makes no sense unless they are looking for a model in the residential market that they can move into the commercial market.'

Tax change boosts deals in tough times | 2007-12-10 16:30:06

The change to capital gains tax has proved an unexpected boon for private equity groups who have experienced resilient deal activity despite the credit crunch.

Research by investment bank Baird showed that over the course of this year 228 deals with a value of less than £500m have been completed.

The Daily Telegraph reports that although this is a 15% fall on the 268 deals completed last year, it shows that deals are still being done.

David Silver, managing director at Baird, said more smaller deals were being done as business owners rushed to sell their companies before the new CGT regime with a tax rate of 18% comes into effect in April.

FSA report expected to admit Rock mistake | 2007-12-10 16:25:15

The Financial Services Authority’s report out tomorrow is expected to admit it made mistakes when supervising Northern Rock’s rescue but is unlikely to produce any dramatic reforms.

The watchdog is expected to admit its focus on customer protection and other ‘conduct of business’ issues may have been at the expense of some prudential duties, overseeing the viability of banks’ business models, the Financial Times reports.

The FSA has started to put through some changes, which include the development of a new risk management team headed by risk expert Colin Lawrence.

More appointments are likely for the new team, the role of which will be to provide expertise and support to the front-line supervisory teams and more detailed examination of banks’ risk models.