CG76631 - Chattels and other assets: chattels: sets of assets
Special rules
TCGA92/S262 (4)
CG76577 tells you about the rules which apply when the consideration for the disposal of a chattel (tangible moveable property) doesn't exceed £6,000.
The £6,000 exemption limit is applied to each disposal of a chattel. This could encourage people to artificially split up a set of articles which is worth more than £6,000 and then sell each asset individually to the same person for £6,000 or less. Each disposal would then be exempt. A set may consist of two or more articles.
If the parts of the set:
- were owned by one person at the same time
and
- were disposed of by that person (whether on the same or different occasions)
to
- one other person acting on their own
or
- more than one person acting in concert
or
- more than one person who are also connected persons (see
then TCGA92/S262(4) treats the separate assets comprising a set as one asset and only one £6,000 limit is allowed
You may come across persons acting in concert, such as a number of dealers acting together as a `ring' at an auction. If there is no evidence that persons who are not connected have previously agreed to act together to acquire the assets which formed a set, the mere fact that they did so is not sufficient.
Identifying a set
The special rules above only apply in cases involving a set of chattels (tangible moveable property).
The dictionary definition of a set is a number of things which belong together because they are essentially similar or complementary to each other.
However, that definition does not entirely fit with the rules in TCGA92/S262(4). The dictionary definition would treat all the seats in a cinema or theatre as similar to each other but these would not be a set for chargeable gains purposes.
We, therefore, take the view that a number of articles will only form a set if
- they are essentially similar and complementary
and
- their value taken together is greater than their total individual value.
The fact that a number of chattels have been included as one lot at an auction, for example, or have been disposed of to the same person(s) is not conclusive that those chattels comprised a set.
While the test for a set may not be satisfied when a complete collection of assets is split up and disposed of, you may be able to identify smaller sets within the collection. If you can, and if the other conditions are satisfied (see ), you can regard each of these small sets as single assets.
Where necessary, any apportionment should be made using the rules in TCGA92/S52(4).