Wealth managers have reacted angrily to news that UK Chancellor Alistair Darling is delaying the announcement of a revised capital gains tax regime until next year. Mr Darling last month assured the CBI conference that he was listening to protests against his Pre-Budget Report decision to implement a single 18 per cent rate of CGT. This would replace the system where the tax rate on the sale of business assets is reduced the longer it is held, falling to 10 per cent after two years. Mr Darling pledged to announce the final regime before Christmas. But on Thursday, he told MPs that the “quite complex” nature of proposals from business groups to mitigate the impact of the tax rise meant it was “desirable to have further discussions with those groups before I finalise my proposals”. Lee Smythe, director of Financial Planning at UK-based private client broker Killik & Co, said: “The delays by the government to make their plans clear on CGT highlights that the proposals were more half-baked than initially thought and that Chancellor Darling needs more time to make the proposals fairer to hard-working savers and small-businesses without admitting he needs to do a volte-face. "Any decision is better than no decision - the uncertainty over CGT is making it very difficult for investors to decide whether they'd be better off realising any gains in what is left of this tax year, or to hold out for the new proposals in April," he added.