I wouldn't want to see inheritance tax raised.
Two parents working their entire life to provide for their children want to leave something after they're gone only for all but a fraction of it to be taken by the Government. You're fucking with a basic driving force of humanity, there.

I'm with him on the income tax, though. I would be if I were on his money, too. With the proviso that the visibility of where it gets spent needs to be approved. Too much of it goes to waste.
( Kroney, Wed 25 Apr 2012, 13:27, 1 reply, 12 years ago)

he blames it for the world's problems, meaning that money stays in the hands of the same few
if it were returned to the government on death to be redistributed, it would be fair.

lovely in theory. in practice, people are by nature acquisitive and they want to leave things to their kids.

this is ALWAYS the problem with tax. it's not what you have to pay. it's what they spunk it on.
( rachelswipe with a fork, Wed 25 Apr 2012, 13:30, Reply)

What he's proposing to fix it though
is to take away *everybody's* ability to give their relations a boost. Nobody would be happy with that, nobody would vote for it and it'd be political suicide to propose it in Parliament.

Indeed. The fact is that no one job is truly more valuable in real terms than another, society would be entirely fucked without binmen, it's just that money doesn't work like that. If what you happen to be good at earns you lots of money, it doesn't make that job inherently more worthwhile to society than say, nursing. There those that earn money have a greater responsibility on them to help those struggling than those on lower incomes.
( Kroney, Wed 25 Apr 2012, 13:35, Reply)

Do you know anything about inheritance tax?
Google at what point it kicks in.
(PsychoChomp, Wed 25 Apr 2012, 13:36, Reply)

£325 grand.
So with the sale of a house, cars, contents of bank accounts etc, it's not actually that high a threshold. It applies to an estate, not a cash sum. All possessions.
( Kroney, Wed 25 Apr 2012, 13:39, Reply)

which is PRECISELY my point
if your parents have less than that to leave, surprise surprise, you are much more likely to be all for IHT. would you still feel like that if your parents had worked hard to leave you, say, £2,000,000 and suddenly the government wanted to take £1,800,000 of it? and ditto, you are much more likely to be in favour of clinging onto your family money if you actually have any!

this is why i think a lot of people's politics is about self-interest.
( rachelswipe with a fork, Wed 25 Apr 2012, 13:40, Reply)

Per individual, £650,000 for a married couple/civil partner. Then you're only taxed after that.
So you can get about 3 houses at the uk average price inherited before you pay any tax. Then you pay 40% on the 4th and 5th houses you get given for free.
(PsychoChomp, Wed 25 Apr 2012, 13:41, Reply)

So say a married couple own their assets together, as most people do.
One person dies. The other person doesn't pay inheritance tax because they hold their assets as joint owners.

For the 650k threshold to apply, they'd have to die together. Or am I wrong, here?
( Kroney, Wed 25 Apr 2012, 13:45, Reply)

You're wrong
married partners don't pay any of the tax, and their £350k allowance is passed over to the surviving member.
(PsychoChomp, Wed 25 Apr 2012, 13:46, Reply)

Fair enough.
House prices currently being what they are though, even 650k is still well within middle class territory. My parents own two houses, one of which they rent out. Combined they own half a million pounds-worth of property and they are not unusual in this country.
( Kroney, Wed 25 Apr 2012, 13:48, Reply)

Even if they owned £1million worth of assets
they would only be taxed 14% which is less than VAT, and all costs of sale etc are tax deductable so it would be less.

It's really not an unreasonable tax, it's just sold as one by the very rich.
(PsychoChomp, Wed 25 Apr 2012, 13:52, Reply)

We're not talking about the current rate of IHT though
We're talking about her gay ex-boyfriend's proposal of 90%
( Kroney, Wed 25 Apr 2012, 13:54, Reply)

I'm pretty fucking sure it isn't unless you are extremely clever about how you hold your assets
but I'm willing to be proved wrong, here.
( the mighty badger Aphrodite, on a bar stool, by your side, Wed 25 Apr 2012, 14:00, Reply)

www.hmrc.gov.uk/inheritancetax/intro/transfer-threshold.htm
(PsychoChomp, Wed 25 Apr 2012, 14:08, Reply)

fair enough.
There always used to be massive restrictions on this, I didn't realise the rules had changed. Useful info, cheers.
( the mighty badger Aphrodite, on a bar stool, by your side, Wed 25 Apr 2012, 14:16, Reply)

depends how they hold the estate

( rachelswipe with a fork, Wed 25 Apr 2012, 13:47, Reply)

In reality anyone into those figures will have taken advantage of IHT tapering relief and the estate will pay fuck all

( Light In Chains maker of the ikea sofa, Wed 25 Apr 2012, 13:45, Reply)

correct
you stitch it up with a complex series of trusts and you can avoid paying most of it.

the people who oppose this kind of tactic are generally the people who don't have much to inherit OR don't have kids to leave it to, imho. but am happy to be proven wrong.
( rachelswipe with a fork, Wed 25 Apr 2012, 13:46, Reply)

SOWHYISEVERYONEARGUING!!!!!!

( Light In Chains maker of the ikea sofa, Wed 25 Apr 2012, 13:48, Reply)

And yet for some reason big media owners and tory politicians
have decided that this is AN OUTRAGE and managed to get the public to think it's a totally unreasonable DEATH TAX
(PsychoChomp, Wed 25 Apr 2012, 13:47, Reply)

I don't get that, the fundamentals of IHT haven't changed in some time
I'm morally aghast for no reason
( Light In Chains maker of the ikea sofa, Wed 25 Apr 2012, 13:51, Reply)

there's a rarity factor to ability/intelligence that gets recognised
that's why the ex earns what he does, because so few people can do that job.

low income support is great. no income support? not without good reason.
( rachelswipe with a fork, Wed 25 Apr 2012, 13:39, Reply)

He has a point. sadly so does Kroney.
People would just give it as a gift during their life or find a way around it. Well, the ritch ones would anyway.
( CQ Knows the truth, all of it., Wed 25 Apr 2012, 13:43, Reply)

find someone who is in line to inherit anything
who thinks it's a good idea to have a high IHT band.

i would bet you a LOT that the very same people preaching about the evils of being tory right now would change their tune pretty fucking sharpish if their parents won the lottery tonight.
( rachelswipe with a fork, Wed 25 Apr 2012, 13:50, Reply)

You are absolutely right.
There are very few people who'd stand by their morality after a sudden change in fortune and those who do would be those that believed in moderate taxing from the start.
( Kroney, Wed 25 Apr 2012, 13:53, Reply)

Maybe, hard to tell really
neither you nor I are good candidates to ask, you being a well off Tory and myself a no-so-well-off Lefty. Anyway, individual anecdote don't count for much, do they?
( CQ Knows the truth, all of it., Wed 25 Apr 2012, 13:55, Reply)