The Budget lever Healey could pull to tax family business succession

Thousands of family businesses could face being priced out of passing their business down to their offspring should Chancellor John Healey to use his maiden Budget to clamp down on a little-known rule making it easier for firms to transfer ownership. Treasury officials have been mulling an overhaul of so-called company distribution rules that would make it more attractive for founders to offload their business to private equity than hand it down to the next generation. One of the options under consideration making the transfer of a business from one generation to another liable to income tax as opposed to capital gains has already sparked uproar from entrepreneurs and business owners. But Chris Etherington, tax partner at RSM, told City AM that the consultation also includes a suite of other proposals that are “much more troubling” than the capital gains tax clampdown.  One possibility buried in the HMRC plans published in the summer, could see officials dismantle a buy