Rachel Reeves’s rather crude strategy is becoming painfully clear. Between now and the Budget she intends to float ideas for so many painful tax rises that, come the day, we will all feel pathetically grateful that only a few of them have come to pass. Her latest suggestion – reported from an anonymous briefing, needless to say – is that the capital gains tax (CGT) exemption on the sale of main homes might be removed for higher-value properties. A threshold of £1.5 million has been suggested. Sell a property for more than that and you would become liable to pay CGT at a rate of 24 per cent on the uplift in value since you bought it.

The exemption from CGT on main homes has become such an accepted feature of the UK tax system that few have ever considered the consequences should it be remo

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