Tax plan 'could crush art market'

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The proposals would introduce capital gains taxation for art sales and deter non-domiciled from buying or selling valuable paintings in the UK.

Anthony Browne, chairman of the British Art Market Federation, said he was meeting treasury officials this week in an attempt to persuade the department to reconsider.

He said: "If we are trying to encourage works of art to come into the country it doesn't help to put up barriers to people bringing them in."

Auction houses are also worried that non-doms will be deterred from buying art in Britain because they will have to pay tax on money they bring into the UK to complete the purchase.

They could also be deterred from bringing art to London to sell, in case that too is liable for taxation, although art which is brought to Britain to be lent to galleries is exempt.

Meanwhile the BAMF is also concerned that a proposal to extend the levy on sales of works by artists who have died within the past 70 years - which is intended to benefit the estates of artists when their art is resold - will make London's auction houses less competitive than those in New York.