The Conservative Party

[Kompany Car]

Or find a way to move it offshore - those who can afford to pay creative accountants and tax advisers will always find a way. The reason wealth taxes can work is because you can't physically lift a £5m house or a £50m factory off shore. Just make it illegal to move the value of the asset surely?

How do you define how much wealth someone has ?
That Rembrandt hanging in the hallway that nobody knows about or the £5m house which is not owned but leased from a company which you and the rest of your family own for which you pay a peppercorn rent.

 

[hilts]

The problem is that it again plays into the hands of those who are already wealthy. There are too many wrappers e.g trust funds and more complex avoidance schemes are available which perpetuate inter-generational family wealth.
What it would do is drive the wealth divide even further apart. If they had a threshold it would inevitably be set at a level which catches the average earners net worth at death.

Well if the rich can avoid it and the poor can’t afford it then are we relying on the paye stiffs on okay to half decent wages to fund it all?

 

[bluethrunthru]

How do you define how much wealth someone has ?
That Rembrandt hanging in the hallway that nobody knows about or the £5m house which is not owned but leased from a company which you and the rest of your family own for which you pay a peppercorn rent.

In the case of the Rembrandt the whereabouts of these are often known anyway - in the event of sale or declaration of part of an estate the new owner becomes liable for the tax. The £5m house owned by a company and leased for a peppercorn rate - some entity owns it - the land registry will tell you that - the company is liable for the tax. Its the lack of political will that makes it impossible.

 

[Kompany Car]

Well if the rich can avoid it and the poor can’t afford it then are we relying on the paye stiffs on okay to half decent wages to fund it all?

And thus it ever was. The song stuck in the middle with you is very apt.

 

[bluethrunthru]

My instinct has always been against wealth taxes on houses but social care is such a huge issue that has been left to ruin then I don’t believe anything but a pretty big change will be enough. You would need to bypass the 7 year rule but the main problem is how can any government have such a policy when it will mean losing an election.

Theresa May tried to address the problem and middle England and above lost their minds.

Yeah - I recall all the bankers were gonna fuck off to Frankfurt and Paris and Amsterdam coz of it - then the thick dicks voted for Brexit and ruled themselves out of that move

 

[Kompany Car]

In the case of the Rembrandt the whereabouts of these are often known anyway - in the event of sale or declaration of part of an estate the new owner becomes liable for the tax. The £5m house owned by a company and leased for a peppercorn rate - some entity owns it - the land registry will tell you that - the company is liable for the tax. Its the lack of political will that makes it impossible.

The Rembrandt is a bit of an over the top from me, but there are many other items of high value which would not be so well known about, be it jewellery, fine wine etc.
I don’t disagree that if the government wanted to stop it and get the money they could, but we’ve had successive conservative and labour governments that just let it slide, because money buys influence whether we like it or not.

 

[bluethrunthru]

The Rembrandt is a bit of an over the top from me, but there are many other items of high value which would not be so well known about, be it jewellery, fine wine etc.
I don’t disagree that if the government wanted to stop it and get the money they could, but we’ve had successive conservative and labour governments that just let it slide, because money buys influence whether we like it or not.

As I say - anything like that will eventually have to be declared in a will of when sold and be liable for the tax - its not hard. In fact as the value climbs the more tax would be owning to the more tax efficient way will be to declare it and pay tax before it goes up too far in value. Of course taking steps to avoid that tax is a criminal offence aas always and will be treated as such.

 

[hilts]

The Rembrandt is a bit of an over the top from me, but there are many other items of high value which would not be so well known about, be it jewellery, fine wine etc.
I don’t disagree that if the government wanted to stop it and get the money they could, but we’ve had successive conservative and labour governments that just let it slide, because money buys influence whether we like it or not.

That and they wouldn’t get voted in and more importantly they have plenty of assets themselves. Remember even the caring party Labour:-) wanted to put up taxes just above MPs salary. People don’t vote to be poorer by anything other than a nominal amount.

They will raise a bit and it will get kicked down the road as per everything else.

 

[Alan Harper's Tash]

There was a story on the news today about a chap whose father had died and mother had dementia. The house will have to be sold to pay for her care. Initial thought was sympathy then I thought it’s probably the way we may have to go and the son was obviously pissed his inheritance is getting battered. Maybe instead of inheritance tax we should have a max inheritance amount.

Spend it or lose it.

It’ll become more common for parents to put their houses in their children’s name(s) at the age of c.55.

Then they aren’t liable for any care costs and inheritance tax would be negated after 7 years.

 

[hilts]

It’ll become more common for parents to put their houses in their children’s name(s) at the age of c.55.

Then they aren’t liable for any care costs and inheritance tax would be negated after 7 years.

Yeah it’s why I mentioned the 7 year rule. I don’t know how we get round the fact people know it’s a problem but want everyone else to pay for it.

These threads just turn into bankers bonuses posts. It’d been done over and over again for everything the country needs. There is probably a small % of voters that decide our election results. Tax them enough and it’s bye bye time.