Tag Archives: capital gains tax

22 January 2025 – today’s press releases

  • Borrowing figures: Another sign the Chancellor’s Budget has not worked
  • OBR Report: Farm tax will penalise farmers for practically no benefit
  • Cole-Hamilton: SNP must scrap social care power grab now
  • OBR Report: Farm tax will penalise Welsh farmers for practically no benefit
  • OBR Report: Farm tax will penalise farmers and crofters for little benefit to Exchequer
  • Cross-border healthcare difficulties letting patients down

Borrowing figures: Another sign the Chancellor’s Budget has not worked

Responding to figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) showing UK borrowing has hit its highest December level for four years, Liberal Democrat Treasury Spokesperson, Daisy Cooper MP said:

This is yet another sign that the Chancellor’s Budget has not worked. It’s now putting people’s mortgages at risk and will make it even harder for the Chancellor to meet her borrowing rules.

The answer to this is to turbo-charge growth by scrapping the jobs tax, and raising the necessary revenue for our NHS from the big banks and tech companies instead.

After the Conservative Party’s disastrous legacy of economic vandalism, the Chancellor needs to go for growth through fairer tax measures that can unleash growth through small businesses, not undermine it.

OBR Report: Farm tax will penalise farmers for practically no benefit

Commenting on the latest OBR report on the impact of agricultural and business property relief, Liberal Democrat Environment and Rural Affairs spokesperson Tim Farron MP said:

This report confirms that the Government’s misguided family farm tax is mired in problems and will penalise British farmers for practically no benefit.

It is deeply concerning that older farmers will be hit hardest from this tax, with the rug pulled from under them before they can change their plans. And with tax revenue expected to be highly uncertain and unstable for two decades, the Chancellor’s excuses simply don’t stack up.

Farmers are absolutely vital for Britain, putting food on our tables and protecting the British countryside. And they are already battling botched trade deals, declining incomes and high energy prices. The Government must do the right thing and scrap the family farm tax before it’s too late.

Cole-Hamilton: SNP must scrap social care power grab now

Speaking ahead of the ministerial statement on the future of the National Care Service, proposals which would centralise social care services and wrench away control from local communities, Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Alex Cole-Hamilton MSP said:

Posted in News, Press releases, Scotland and Wales | Also tagged , , , , , , , and | 8 Comments

9 January 2025 – today’s press releases

  • Food prices set to rise: news will be hammer blow for millions already choosing between heating and eating
  • NHS stats: winter “one of the most brutal on record” as Lib Dems call on Streeting to bring forward emergency plan to protect patients
  • ‘Bed blocking’ has already cost NHS £165 million this winter as Davey calls on govt to finish social care review this year
  • Market turmoil: Chancellor should cancel China trip for emergency growth statement
  • Oxford Farming Conference: Reed’s “regret” not good enough – Starmer must reverse family farm tax
  • More than 440,000 police officer and staff days lost to mental health since 2019

Food prices set to rise: news will be hammer blow for millions already choosing between heating and eating

Responding to the British Retail Consortium saying that food prices will rise by 4.2% in the latter half of this year as “retailers battle the £7 billion of increased costs in 2025 from the Budget”, Liberal Democrat Treasury spokesperson Daisy Cooper MP said:

This news will come as a hammer blow to families across the country. Millions of people are already having to choose between heating and eating and the prospect of even more pressure on stretched budgets will be incredibly worrying.

The new government is faced with the enormous challenge of cleaning up the Conservative Party’s economic vandalism, but their approach so far risks repeating more mistakes.

It’s now clear as day that the Chancellor’s misguided national insurance hike is only going to hammer household budgets further by forcing up prices. Ministers must recognise their error and scrap this tax hike immediately.

NHS stats: winter “one of the most brutal on record” as Lib Dems call on Streeting to bring forward emergency plan to protect patients

Responding to NHS England saying that this is the busiest year on record for emergency services, Liberal Democrat Health and Social Care spokesperson Helen Morgan MP said:

This winter threatens to be one of the most brutal on record. Patients are suffering through deadly delays and staff are already at breaking point.

There can be no overstating just dangerous this situation is after years of the previous Conservative government’s shameful neglect of our NHS.

It is of paramount importance that the new government grips this crisis urgently. That must start with the Health Secretary producing an emergency plan in the coming days to protect patients from this ongoing disaster.

‘Bed blocking’ has already cost NHS £165 million this winter as Davey calls on govt to finish social care review this year

  • This winter has already seen 417,220 bed days taken up by patients that were well enough to be discharged – costing the NHS £165 million or £4.8 million a day
  • 12,271 of England’s 103,277 hospital beds have been taken up by people who are fit to be discharged everyday this winter – the equivalent of just under one in eight
  • Lib Dem Leader Ed Davey has called on the government to complete its social care review by the end of the year to take pressure off hospitals

This winter has already seen 417,220 bed days taken up by patients that were fit enough to be discharged, the equivalent of 1 in 8, costing the NHS £165 million in just over a month research by the Liberal Democrats has revealed.

Posted in News, Press releases and Scotland | Also tagged , , , , , , , , and | 15 Comments

£18,000 Education Pot – a good idea?

The papers today have been full of Vince Cable’s proposal that all 16-year olds should have access to an £18,000 endowment for education.

Here is an extract from The Sun:

Teenagers should get £18,000 to spend on further education to re-balance inequality between the generations, Sir Vince Cable has said.

The Lib Dem leader today unveiled his plans for an “endowment fund” which would be used for young people to spend throughout their lives.

And from the Daily Telegraph:

A new wealth tax could extract some of the housing value owned by older Brits, which Cable wants to use to give all 18-year olds

Posted in News | Also tagged , , and | 18 Comments

Opinion: Should Britain copy Obama’s capital gains proposals?

President Obama has announced proposals to increase taxes on the wealthy and help those on lower incomes (such as by boosting tax credits). The plans include reforms to capital gains tax (CGT): increasing its rate and ending a loophole. Should we do the same in the UK, and how do the Lib Dems’ proposals compare?

Posted in News and Op-eds | Also tagged | 14 Comments

Vince Cable MP writes… My view on George Osborne’s employee ownership scheme

Last week at the Conservative Party conference the Chancellor announced a new equity ownership scheme. His proposed scheme, targeted at small companies, is entirely voluntary and cannot be forced upon employees. It would offer employees shares (from £2,000 to £50,000) in their business in exchange for certain employment rights. The shares are Capital Gains Tax free – which if the company grows extremely fast is a valuable offer.

The scheme has had a mixed reaction. However a few

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged , , and | 76 Comments

Danny Alexander: pay tax as I say not as I do?

Lib Dem chief secretary to the treasury Danny Alexander wrote a powerful article — Rich tax dodgers are as bad as dole cheats — for this week’s Sun newspaper. His condemnation of those, such as Jimmy Carr, who legally avoid paying their taxes couldn’t have been stronger:

… to most people it’s outrageous that a few of the very richest and their expensive financial advisers are devising ever more obscure and underhand ways of not paying their tax. When it comes to paying their fair share, some of the people

Posted in News | Also tagged , , , and | 32 Comments

LDV readers say: Tax Capital Gains and Income at the same level

LDV posed the question last month (even before the Osborne/Alexander austerity emergency budget): Do you believe that as a matter of principle capital gains should generally be taxed at the same level as income?

Here’s what you told us:

    68% (946 votes) – Yes
    27% (371) – No
    6% (80) – Don’t know
    Total Votes: 1397, Poll ran: 10th June – 31st July, 2010

If you missed it at the time, it’s well worth having a read of the comments thread.

Posted in Voice polls | Also tagged | 11 Comments

A taxing mystery from yesterday in Parliament

Liberal Democrat MP Julian Huppert tweeted yesterday:

In chamber listening to Finance Bill debate. Labour trying to reduce (!) capital gains rate from 28% to 25%. No, I don’t understand why!

Posted in Parliament | Also tagged | 8 Comments

Opinion: Liberal Democrats must not compromise on fairer taxes

Today, the Social Liberal Forum has published an open letter to Nick Clegg and Danny Alexander expressing our concerns prior to the emergency budget which will be unveiled next week. By coincidence, Simon Hughes, Malcolm Bruce and Lord Oakeshot are reported in the FT today expressing similar sentiments on capital gains tax.

The SLF letter covers a lot more ground than CGT including socio-economic inequality, income tax and VAT. But it is a fundamental issue which, more than anything else, will determine the future direction of the coalition. For the past month, Tory backbench MPs and the rightwing press …

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged , and | 53 Comments

NEW POLL: Should capital and income be taxed at the same level?

In amongst the debate over capital gains tax and the politics of whether the Budget leans more towards the previous Liberal Democrat or Conservative policies on the topic is a significant issue of principle.

The Liberal Democrats (and previously the Liberals in particular) have traditionally been much keener on the idea that the tax system should treat ‘unearned income’ more equally to earned income, and so tax more equally the growth in capital value of assets compared with salaries.

Of course the use of the word ‘unearned’ is itself the trigger for a whole range of debates as increase values …

Posted in Voice polls | Also tagged and | 33 Comments

Danny Alexander issues a statement on his Capital Gains Tax affairs

Danny Alexander has made a statement, following an article in the Telegraph on Sunday night, which reported that he had avoided paying Capital Gains Tax on a south London property in 2007:

My wife and I bought our property in Elspeth Road in 1999, we sold it and moved to the current property in June 2007.

Until the spring of 2006 this was the only property we owned. I had rented a place in Aviemore until then, we subsequently bought a place there and moved into it.

I have always listed London as my second home on the basis set out in

Posted in News | Also tagged and | 97 Comments
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