Lefties dreaming up another "inheritance" tax

[EternalOptimist]

Nope, but I did just check anyway

er
I heard a rumour that the lefties are dreaming up another 'inheritance' tax

[HairyArsedBloke]

I can make it rotate both ways.

ARRGGGGHHHHHH!

I can make it do that now.

Does that make me bipolar as well as bi???? /

[expat]

Well if this is true then surely the only "fair" inheritance tax is one levied at 100% on all estates worth more than £0?

No, no, of course not. That would be quite wrong. It would impact that large slice of lower-savings people that we might, for want of a better phrase, call "labour voters".

[expat]

by savings do they just mean cash in the bank? What about bank accounts overseas?

You will remember that their view is that "exit taxes must be accepted as a necessary move to protect public revenue". Don't even think of moving "your" money out of our tax area. Comrade.

[BrilloPad]

You will remember that their view is that "exit taxes must be accepted as a necessary move to protect public revenue". Don't even think of moving "your" money out of our tax area. Comrade.

So the movement of power to Asia will be hastened then?

[expat]

Some of us (the elderly) can remember when you weren't allowed to take more than £50 out of the country... that was abolished by Maggie when she came to power in 1979.

Though one might observe that 50 uniflated quidlets were more like £500 these days...

I do remember that. I am no fan of Thatcher, but I will say that the early Thatcher govt did do away with some long-standing illiberal restrictions, that I'm happy to say have not returned. Like the idea that "your" money belonged in the country and you needed permission to spend it somewhere else (Customs obviously still feel the same way about cross-border shopping).

She also struck out the ban on individuals holding gold, and on walkie-talkies.

All of them indicative of a government mind-set that everything was theirs to run, rather than belonging to the people, subject only to necessary regulation. I do see this mind-set on the rise again, and I'm afraid that I fail to see any sign of a more liberal alternative to the current lot. Cameron's Tories will only accidentally make fewer regulations, just because they have fewer things that they want to achieve (no, that is not Conservatism); and the LibDems have the worst combination of young liberal intefering firebrands (of all ages) and social democrat social engineers.

[zathras]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2008...ax.gordonbrown
The authors broadly support a tax on lifetime savings, starting at £80,000, rather than a tax on estates at death.

An absurd suggestion when the problem we have currently is insufficient saving. When people are not saving enough to take them through retirement or other periods with no income. Of course if people do not save then they are more reliant upon the government in times of need and are therefore more likely to vote for those who will continue to keep them. That and it is an affirmation that in a socialist utopia the money you make either by the sweat of your brow or by investment is not yours but the government's to (mis)spend as they see fit.

[Jaded]

This disaster of a government are borrowing and spending so much that they will grab every pound they can from honest, hard working taxpayers, just so that they can pass the money to the scroungers and idle!!

[Sysman]

I wonder if the New Liebour solution to rising global food prices will be collective farms?

kolkhozia

[BrilloPad]

An absurd suggestion when the problem we have currently is insufficient saving. When people are not saving enough to take them through retirement or other periods with no income. Of course if people do not save then they are more reliant upon the government in times of need and are therefore more likely to vote for those who will continue to keep them. That and it is an affirmation that in a socialist utopia the money you make either by the sweat of your brow or by investment is not yours but the government's to (mis)spend as they see fit.

Another way to keep lifetime savings under 80k is to get divorced.

HTH