Tag Archives: inheritance tax

Opinion: Time to give inheritance tax the chop

By Former Organiser | Tue 23rd August 2011 - 1:53 pm

Whilst on my weekly perusal of Lib Dem Voice I spotted an interesting article by my lovely colleague Stuart Bonar. He was discussing inheritance tax; an issue that I hope will not affect me for a while, but nonetheless, an important one to many of us. I was initially inclined to agree with Stuart’s view that individuals should be taxed on these ‘wind-falls’ but then I got thinking…

Inheritance tax used to be a tax on the rich, something not relevant to most of us. But it’s now a tax paid by many, as house and asset prices have risen to extraordinary levels; many being valued at over £325 000, which is the threshold for this tax. However, I do wonder whether many of the rich, the original subjects of this tax, pay it, as they can afford expensive and skilled accountants or leave the country to escape this payment, something that I and many others cannot do.

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Stuart Bonar

Opinion: A brave tax proposal

By Stuart Bonar | Sat 13th August 2011 - 4:15 pm

Back in June Mark Pack suggested that now is a good time to start debating tax ideas for the next manifesto. So, let me throw in two ideas: one brave, one not so brave.

Ready reckoners published online by HM Revenue & Customs make it easier to play the role of armchair Chancellor, so that is exactly what I am going to do.

My first idea is to increase inheritance tax by 5% to 45%, raking in an extra £350m, and then spend £300m of that to cut the reduced rate of VAT to 4%.
…

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Malcolm Wood

Opinion: Inheriting Tory Tax Plans

By Malcolm Wood | Thu 13th May 2010 - 11:20 am

Nobody likes paying tax. But most of us accept the necessity of paying collectively for public services, and the moral obligation on those of us with good incomes to subsidise these services for those without. Most of us would also accept that, in times of serious budget deficit, any adjustments to the tax system should be made in favour of those who are, firstly, of the most limited means, and, secondly, alive.

It’s easy to make inheritance tax sound unfair. Just describe it as “double taxation”; a second tax on income which has already been taxed. But …

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Stephen Tall

Tory tax priorities: spend £6 billion on the wealthiest 0.8% in the UK

By Stephen Tall | Sun 2nd May 2010 - 5:20 pm

Small wonder that Tory leader David Cameron publicly rowed back on his inheritaance tax cut for millionaires in last week’s televised debate – Lib Dem research released today shows the Tories’ promise would:

  • cost £6bn over the course of the next Parliament;
  • is aimed at the wealthiest 0.8% of estates in the UK; and
  • would benefit 3,000 of the wealthiest estates in the country every year by almost £250,000

As Vince Cable points out:

At a time when the gap between the richest and poorest is so great, it beggars belief that David Cameron wants to give the

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Stephen Tall

Cameron’s confusion over Tory marriage tax plans

By Stephen Tall | Mon 4th January 2010 - 5:40 pm

It can be hard pre-launching an election campaign, can’t it? Here’s the PoliticsHome rolling news front page from today:

At 3.04 pm, the site reported:

David Cameron said he could not guarantee a Conservative government would be able to offer a tax break to married couples, despite having personally supported such a move. “It’s something within a parliament I would definitely hope to do,” he said, but insisted the state of the public finances prevented him from offering any guarantee. “We’re not able to give people absolute certainty

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The Voice

Vince: Tory sums do not stack up

By The Voice | Mon 4th January 2010 - 2:25 pm

Lib Dem Shadow Chancellor Vince Cable has wasted no time in pointing out the huge gaps in the arithmetic of the Conservatives’ draft election manifesto. Earlier today, at the launch of the manifesto, David Cameron stated that his proposed inheritance tax cut would be paid for by taxing non-doms, saying:

“Every other spending pledge we have made, every tax pledge we have made, is fully costed and fully set out. If you take for example the pledge on inheritance tax, which we’ve said is not for a first budget but is a pledge for a parliament, that is to be paid for by taxing the non-doms, the people who live here but do not pay full tax here.”

However Vince was critical of both the principle of the inheritance tax cut and the Tories’ sums. He pointed out that the annual gap between the revenue from non-doms and the lost inheritance tax will grow from £350 million in the first year of the next parliament to almost £1.5 billion by 2015, a total of almost £6 billion. He said:

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