Within the Taxation of Chargeable Gains Act 1992 (TCGA 1992) are listed certain assets which are specifically exempt from capital gains tax (CGT). One of those is chattels or ‘tangible moveable property’, which is generally anything other than land and real property, under s262 where the proceeds of a disposal is £6,000 or less.

These are generally smaller, multiple, lower-value items for which this section provides a de minimis. Loss relief on the disposal of chattels is restricted should proceeds be under £6,000 but the original base cost be above that – in this case £6,000 will be the substituted base cost.

Also, in the case of sets of chattels (where the total value of the set is greater than the sum of the individual parts), it might be tempting to sell off individual items with their lower values, over a period of time to reduce the overall CGT bill.