Rush to beat tax changes

DIRECTORS at Britain's publicly-listed companies are rushing to offload or transfer shares in a bid to beat changes to capital gains tax due to come in on April 6.

According to Directors Deals, which monitors such share transactions, the flow of directors dumping their holdings hit a ten-month high in March.

The latest high profile name to do so is London Stock Exchange chief executive Clara Furse. Records show that at the same time as she sold 425,165 shares, worth £5.1 million, to lock in current gains, her husband Richard bought exactly the same amount. In the last few days, Rob Templeman, head of Debenhams transferred 250,000 shares to his wife.

From next week, the minimum capital gains tax rate will be jump from ten per cent to 18 per cent.