I think his place on the board of HS2 makes him an excellent fit for the value for money role.I see the Gocernments new "Value for Money" Tsar announced in tge Budget, one David Goldstone, has clocked a £250k sallery.
Value for Money? Err
What is a surplus pension? Do you mean that amount that you already know you won't spend? If so, how do you know you won't get dementia in the future and need the "surplus" to pay for care. And if 40% is "stolen", at least your heirs may be able to enjoy public services that are better than those we have now. And before you lay in, yes I will be affected by IHT.So at a stroke Starmer and his twatty party has stolen 40 percent of my surplus pension from my heirs by bringing pensions into IHT.
They never learn, it's just a merry go round of favours at that level.I think his place on the board of HS2 makes him an excellent fit for the value for money role.
Even so, it's disappointing that a measure can't be devised to distinguish between long-held family farms and recent purchases for tax avoidance.Fewer than 2000 farms are affected by the IHT changes but - like school fees - people unaffected directly are persuaded by others that the sky in their unaffected world is falling in.
Big complainers are Clarkson - not a farmer but a TV personality who has a farm to use as a vehicle to film a show about himself - also bought a farm with the intention he could stick his money in there to AVOID IHT. Also gobbing off is Kirstie Allsopp who is not a farmer but is also a TV personality and probably by dint of background and birth stands to benefit from the proceeds of a farm upon the death of a relative
I'd make all farms state owned and run, then we wouldn't have any of this trouble.Even so, it's disappointing that a measure can't be devised to distinguish between long-held family farms and recent purchases for tax avoidance.
And some "family farms" are big businesses, and you'd need some mechanism to prevent a "family" inheriting the farm then immediately selling it (or just the farmhouse, often the most valuable part of the estate).
There are farmers whose children aren't interested or have chosen other careers (a 79 year old farmer recently sold off his prize herd of Lincoln Red cattle for this reason).
I guess that in many cases, like the landed gentry had to sell works of art to pay death duties on stately homes, the tax could be paid by selling off (or mortgaging) part of the land.
Protecting tenant farmer families is another issue.