UK Plan to Expand Bills Market Sparks Calls for Retail Tax Perks

The UK should consider extending a tax perk for government bonds to the bills market to boost its attractiveness to private investors, according to retail trading platforms.

The call by the likes of IG Group Holdings Plc’s Freetrade comes after the government started an industry consultation this month on how to expand and deepen the nation’s bills market, including a request for measures to boost investment by retail customers in this short term debt.

Currently any profits on bills are taxed as income, whereas UK bonds are exempt from capital gains. That quirk has led to a trading boom ...