really getting tired of this dog whistle bollocks.
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I was driving through a few villages in Northern Ireland at the weekend and the display of flags was very similar. It’s the end of the parade season, and although they can be contentious, there’s a big difference between a formally arranged display in cooperation with the local authority and this kind of anonymous display which is trying to invoke a sectarian threat.
If someone wants to stick a flag on their own property then that’s entirely there own business. Let them get on with it.
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Amusing row has erupted on LBC after Lewis Goodall made a wild and theoretical suggestion at 100% inheritance tax to increase treasury revenues. Iain Dale responded and in my opinion made a bit of a tit of himself. His prime argument being that you’re penalised for your hard work. Sorry Iain, how can you be penalised when you’re dead?
One of a few videos on the spat.
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personally im opposed to any inheritance tax other than a token payment to transfer wealth to your family or charity…for a miriad of reasons, basically starting with the ultimate fact that its already been taxed once, no society should be asking for it to be taxed twice…
however, i am well aware that with such a blanket statement there are very nuanced arguements that can oppose that…
to be fair though mate, hand on your heart, you cant even argree with your own point here…of course you have an intent after your passing and penalising your intent is still penalising you and what you leave behind
i think the issue is greater than inheritence though, of course we are motivated as a species for our kin to be better off than we are/were…the issue is that money is so crucial…
furthermore, you just know any inheirence tax wont be hitting where it should be, itll hit the middle class…all it will do will shift big money out of your economy.
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Money is routinely taxed multiple times. For example, if you are paid a wage, that will be subject to income taxes. If you then spend it, it will be subject to value added taxes, and the recipient is in turn taxed on their profits.
The problem with what is referred to as “inheritance tax” is that it is actually a death tax. It is paid on the estate and not the inheritor. Aside from generating public income, the tax is supposed to limit unearned income, but as it is structured it actually has the opposite effect as one individual is able to enjoy tax breaks from multiple inheritances.
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For me I thought it was a good thought experiment and one that I am still playing out in my own head. Thus far I’ve only come to the conclusion that with any such policy the devil will always be in the detail. Then there was the giggles of how a lot of people including Iain Dale were triggered by it.
I agree, if it starts hitting the wrong people then the policy is just wrong. Personally, I would not want my partner to lose our house for example. Secondly, my piddly savings are hardly worth the effort of taxing, apart from my pension fund.
But there is a strong argument on unearned wealth which is a whole arena that honestly needs a look at imo. That combined with the exponential flow of wealth to people that dont need it.
It just a feeds into the issue of how the worlds finances need rebalancing.
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Tax should be paid on wealth. Any money you are given. All of it - inheritance, dividends, capital gains, rental income.
Basically the tax burden is skewed towards income rather than wealth. This means people of lesser means pay a disproportionate share of their income in tax.
I believe you work out what the country needs to run - health service, transport network, emergency services, education etc - and you take as much as you possibly can from wealth taxes. Then you top it up from income - we need a situation where as little as possible - nothing of possible - from income.
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you are taxed on dividends unless they are franked, rental income and capital gains…
at least you are in australia…
as for inheritance…once you make money from whatever vehicle is left to you, by way of income or capital gains, you are again taxed…
why should you pay a tax ontop of that to simply inherit something? the tax will be paid on the income or gain on the inheritance.
for instance, if a parent leaves their next of kin a magic coin which was purchased for 2 dollars, and the next of kin charge a fee to veiw that coin, then tax is paid on that income…after two years if they then sell the magic coin for 300 dollars, they pay tax on the 298 dollars profit at the nominal tax rate…
leaving something behind isnt a tax dodge…its leaving behind what you have built up over your life to the people you love…
there are also forms of wealth tax, by way of land tax etc etc…however, taxing wealth is problematic if the wealth has no cash flow…
think of owning a peice of art (not the mona lisa, just a really nice but expensive peice of art…it has a value, but no income…how is it fair to pay tax on the value of it yearly, and think of the industries affected by the value of their products decreasing accordingly…
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Didn’t they used to allow companies/people to offset taxes against art if you allowed people to come and look at it? Mark Thomas (comedian) did a thing on it years ago where he organised lots of his fans to request access to these art pieces that the companies and people involved found all rather inconvenient. That sort of thing could work. Allow people to offset the taxes against community friendly actions, permissive footpaths across land, art viewable on request etc.
Edit - yeah, it didn’t work. Mark Thomas was instrumental in having the law changed because people were abusing it.
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Gifts above a certain amount during a person’s life are subject to tax. Is there any reason why gifts after their death should be treated differently?
As I said earlier, the problem with inheritance tax as it stands is that it is a death duty applied to the estate, rather than an actual inheritance tax.
What I would like to see is an increase in public interest trusts (similar to Stiftnung in Germany). They really only apply to the super wealthy, but they can be a general good.
i wasnt aware of that and ive never been ‘gifted’ an amount significant enough to incur further taxes on the people (my parents) gifting me my money…for reference loaning oyur kid money to buy thier first car etc etc
however, lets say the threshold is 100k, and a gift is given not in cash, but in widgets
now, the burden of the tax debt would no doubt be the gifter (alive) who accepts the ownership of the tax burden and if unable to meet the demands will be dealt with accordingly
in death, however, those same widgets are transfered to the next of kin, how can you plsce a tax burden on someone who may or may not have enough liquid funds to meet that debt?
do they need to then sell the family widgets to meet those obligations? what if there is no demand for widgets?
fundamentally, a dollar has already been taxed, that should be it, government shouldnt be coming back in for more.
i dont want to turn this into a big government/small government issue, but again, it seems to all gravitate not towards making governments more efficient, less bloated and pull a few more snouts out of the trough, and more about how we can make more people give more money…
the sentiment i think isthat people would like Lord Humphrey Privilage taxed on his vast estate his family inherited in 1682, but the reality is, whatever you can pull out of him and his family, youll be pulling more out of people in middle classes who have an aspiration to leave a bit behind…
the house never loses…
If it’s HMRC, its £3,000 per year which is excluded from inheritance tax. This only applies to gifts within the previous 7 years of an individuals death and only on estates of greater than £325,000.
One of the standard ways around this is the trust fund which is higher amounts gifted to (usually) children, years in advance of an individuals expected death.
As I pointed out, the UK system is essentially death duty, not inheritance tax.
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Nottinghamshire 
it wouldn’t surprise me if the majority of voters there are for it too.
Let’s face it reporting is woke.
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The fight of the right, who is more right?
Weak attempt at humour aside, the lack of leadership is sad but not unexpected. We live in weak times.
When she says ‘our’, she doesn’t mean me and you.
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Would that be the oil fields that were sold off?
Ok then…