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If you going to have tax I'd rather it was taxed on things like inheritance than my earnings... i'd rather get less of a house from my parents in 20 years than less of my earnings (which I need now) today
All this bollocks about inheritance tax and it promoting a fairer society is boring. *Newsflash* - the super rich don't pay inheritance tax. The vast majority of inheritance tax revenue comes from the estates of ordinary people. Property values have increased so much inheritance tax often applies on a modest family semi or an ex council house in many areas. There are loopholes, people can make plans to give stuff to their family before they die - if they have time. Things can happen very quickly and a family left devestated after someone dies of a sudden heart attack frequently face the further agony of inheritance tax. Whilst those rich enough to afford good accountants can use offshore funds and all sorts of other loopholes to avoid paying the tax, not that I blame them...but really, when the very rich are rarely affected the 'fairer society' justification doesn't really work.
thats a case for loophole closing more than stopping the tax, me and my sister would be liable if my mum died, but it doesn't mean youll be evicted
just because ordinary people are hit by inheritance tax doesn't mean it's extortionate since it's only 40% above the value
if the limit was 300k and someone had a 500k house which imo is a wealthy person's house, not that rich but wealthy nonetheless, they'd get a bill for £80,000, which is still an effective tax rate of less than 20% of the value
id be all for raising the limit to £400,000, but making the % at 50% and enforcing like hell none of this trust malarky - it's technically the fairest tax as it doesn't tax hard work since the beneficiaries haven't worked for it (unless u married into the family for that purpose like an 18th century upper class family
Not really as I'm against the very principle of inheritance tax. I just think it's worth pointing out that the 'fairer society' argument does not apply in practice.
Yeah - only 40%. 40% of a couple of hundred grand over the limit is a huge amount of money.
Inheritance tax isn't fair. I know of families where the parents both work full time, as do the adult children - they live in the same house, the children pay rent which helps pay the mortgage, it's the family home... If the parents when they go are happy for the children to carry on living in the family home - why shouldn't they be able to? - In many cases, they can't because the burden of inheritance tax is so high.
Inheritance tax is wrong, I salute anybody that avoids it.
maybe in some utopian socialist heaven this would be okay because we would all be taxed equally and brown wouldn't be allowed to piss my money up against the wall and it might actually go towards keeping homeless people off the street etc instead of pfi and trident missiles, but as things stand i'll do my best to make sure those thieving bastards don't get a penny more out of me than i can help. lol rant over.
Its exactly because your kids didnt earn it that its not meritocratic and it's not rewarding hard work but the luck of being born into the right family.
It would reward hard work and meritocracy to let the family keep it, because you work hard for your family at the end of the day....and like i said if the mega rich dynasties can keep their money in the family then why can't we ffs?
Thats just an argument for better tax law, not the removal of inheritance tax.
Not really. Lets be realistic - the mega rich don't pay inheritance tax and they never will. If 'better tax laws' could change that don't you think Gordon Brown would have introduced them? Do you have an idea nobody at the Treasury/Inland Revenue and no Chancellor has ever thought of? Moving stuff offshore, front companies - there's lots of ways if you've got enough money for it to make sense and 'better tax laws' won't change a thing. The Cayman Islands, British Virgin Islands, Switzerland, etc aren't going to disappear.
Australia, NZ and Canada have long since abolished inheritance tax, we should too.
If the mega rich don't pay inheritance tax how come the National Trust keeps snaffling up some nice houses and paintings in lieu of death duty?
The National Trust doesn't keep snaffling up nice houses from the mega rich...
Old titled families in a stately home falling to bits needing a million pounds worth of repairs aren't the mega rich in 2007. Why do you think such houses are usually in bad condition when the National Trust get them? I'm not sure it's happening so much anyway these days...
You can bet the NT won't be getting their hands on whatever houses Philip Green, Richard Branson, Hans Rausing (Tetra Pak bloke) have when they go.
By that logic we would have very few taxes at all........