http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2008...ax.gordonbrown
The campaign is launched with a Fabian pamphlet that claims Brown's "panic-stricken failure" to stand his ground on the tax in face of the Tory challenge last autumn led to the decision to postpone the general election, and to a wider loss of nerve.
The campaign, likely to be seen as a further challenge to the prime minister's authority, is launched in a letter in the Guardian today from leading figures on the left backing the pamphlet's assertion that inheritance tax is vital to a society that believes in equal life chances. They call for a citizen-led initiative to restate the moral case for inheritance tax.
The authors broadly support a tax on lifetime savings, starting at £80,000, rather than a tax on estates at death.
They say it "is patently unfair to tax earnings from hard work while leaving unearned inheritances and gifts - which often reflect nothing more than an accident of birth - untaxed. Inequality in financial inheritances contributes to overall inequality of opportunity."
Looks to me like anyone with more than £80K in the bank is going to have to hand the rest over to Labour to pay for the banking bailout.
The campaign is launched with a Fabian pamphlet that claims Brown's "panic-stricken failure" to stand his ground on the tax in face of the Tory challenge last autumn led to the decision to postpone the general election, and to a wider loss of nerve.
The campaign, likely to be seen as a further challenge to the prime minister's authority, is launched in a letter in the Guardian today from leading figures on the left backing the pamphlet's assertion that inheritance tax is vital to a society that believes in equal life chances. They call for a citizen-led initiative to restate the moral case for inheritance tax.
The authors broadly support a tax on lifetime savings, starting at £80,000, rather than a tax on estates at death.
They say it "is patently unfair to tax earnings from hard work while leaving unearned inheritances and gifts - which often reflect nothing more than an accident of birth - untaxed. Inequality in financial inheritances contributes to overall inequality of opportunity."
Looks to me like anyone with more than £80K in the bank is going to have to hand the rest over to Labour to pay for the banking bailout.
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