Why the tories do not deserve to win the next election

[BrilloPad]

I will get back to you in Feb then when mini tay is due... I dont think my opinion will have changed much...

How do you know what you will feel after the birth? Of course, if that is the truth and not a wind up?

I feel sorry for Mrs Tay if mini Tay is anything like you.

[DodgyAgent]

Does getting a windfall often not result in one being able to work in a field/job that one os genuinely interested in rather than one that pays the bills. Personally if I was able to work in a job I was interested in rather than the current scenario then I would work far harder.

I would like to be a professional golfer, I may not be very good but with a wedge of dosh behind me it wouldnt really matter.

[TykeMerc]

I admit there are problems like this, but then the same is true of inheritance tax today. You'd obviously need to have exceptions for dependents, be they spouses or under 18s. And FWIW, my parents were very much alive when I was at university (still are thankfully) but couldn't afford to give me money.

So the only reason you earn money is so you can leave it to your children when you're dead? Personally I wouldn't be happy living off minimum wage, not because of wanting to leave anything behind, but because I want a better life for me.

Of course I might have a different perspective if I had children or rich parents.

Okay so this would never work and would never happen. But I think as a principle it has some merits, and the arguments against seem to mainly consist of "because I don't want to" rather than anything of substance. But we all have to pay tax, so the question is what is the fairest way of collecting it? Should the hard working have to pay more tax than the lucky?

As soon as you start making exceptions you get rules that people will bend, exploit or outright break and of course those exceptions can never be administered in a fair manner. Just look at the issues that many of us have with HMRC and income tax, quite a few of the posters on this board invest money in tax avoidance because the system doesn't seem equitable.

My children aren't the only reason that I work hard to assemble wealth, but it's certainly a factor, I would rather give my sons a better and easier start to their adult lives than they would get without a bean. Should I snuff it I would rather they got the benefit of my labours than a bunch of itinerant tossers in Parliament.

If you had a windfall of money would you be as motivated to work?
Would you be as motivated to work as hard as you would before the windfall? or would you work on your terms more than on your employers terms?

Honest answer, yes I enjoy my work.

I would also be able to take on projects for pet interests like a few museums and a hospice that helped out a friend when he was dying and do them for nothing, at the moment I can't afford to support those projects as much as I would like.

[Waldorf]

This thread is sounding too socialist

There is no way I want any money I leave to be wasted by bureaucrats in Whitehall and handed out to scroungers. If my kids end up being idle to any money I leave them then at least they are my own.

My money has already been taxed so why should the state get its greedy hands on it again.

The Tories have just confirmed that they will allow the £1million allowance to be passed between spouses. This is exactly the same as Darling announced in his panic before Christmas, the only difference is that the allowance will be £1million each rather than £300K ish.

A move in the right direction, although I appreciate that with the mess that the economy is in, abolition will not be a priority.

[TykeMerc]

Here's a nice example of how Inheritance Tax can hopelessly mess people up.
The 2 links are the same story a couple of years apart and concern 2 elderly sisters who share the parental home that they've lived in for over 160 years between them.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/5336760.stm

and the follow on

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/w...re/7372555.stm

This is a pretty example of how inheritance tax is unjust and unreasonable and an example of the complicated problems which the tax causes.

[ace00]

This thread is sounding too socialist

Yes, and going back to the OP, the best reason the few remaining socialists can come up with for not voting tory? They plan to raise the inheritance tax threshold. That's not going to win you the next election, is it?