While the focus of Rachel Reeves' interview on Monday has been on her refusal to rule out raising capital gains tax, potentially more insightful is her evolving position on the tax treatment of carried interest earned in the private equity industry.
- The Labour government has targeted a reform of carried interest since being in opposition and show no signs of reversing course.
- However, Reeves indicated that there should be a distinction between those who have capital risk and those that don't, stating "if you put in your own capital, it you've got capital at risk, I think it is right that you benefit from a more generous form of tax relief." This repeats similar comments that Reeves recently made and reflects Labour's evolving position on the issue.
- From a broader CGT perspective, this would suggest not aligning CGT with income tax bands for investors that have capital at stake.