9.9bn Quid, 0% tax. Tell me PH, How is this fair?

[RYH64E]

The only good thing about inheritance tax is that, for the vast majority of us, it's quite easy to avoid. Avoidance strategies are spend it, give it away, or don't die, I'm aiming for the last option but keeping the first two in mind just in case.

[Vizsla]

zygalski said:

I don't begrudge paying inheritance tax on my assets.

Hosenbugler said:

Your choice, your assets and earnings. I have sympathy for your heirs.

Sympathy? They're going to get a gift of possibly several hundred grand, how long would it take the average person to save that much? I'd say they will be bloody fortunate, I'd be laughing my cock off in their position.

[TwigtheWonderkid]

Dr Jekyll said:

Also the UK did not invent the slave trade, but was instrumental in abolishing it.

I never said we invented it, and I never said we didn't play a key role in abolishing it. But for many years we were major players in it, many Brits made fortunes, as did ports and associated supporting businesses, and the government benefited hugely from tax on the profits of the slave trade.

Let's not try and pretend otherwise.

[Guybrush]

zygalski said:

Guybrush said:

Inheritance tax is not just a tax on the wise who have saved, it's a tax on items which have risen by inflation. I know tax doesn't have to be logical, but a tax which keeps people in their place is unreasonable.

It's mostly a tax on property. UK property prices rise massively higher than inflation.
I'm a homeowner, but let's face it, I haven't earned the increases in properties I've bought. I've just sat on the safest asset money can buy & paid my monthly dues whilst the house price rises stupidly.
My last house was purchased in 1999 for £89k & I sold last year for £260k. The average UK full time take home salary in 1999 was about £20,800. In 2015 it was £29,934
It's only fair to pay my share when I snuff it.

'Your share' of what? The money will still buy the same house. You just need more of it to do so. As 'fiscal creep' does its stuff, the tax take is increasing and what is therefore left is diminishing.

[zygalski]

johnfm said:

Randy Winkman said:

If we get rid of inheritance tax, which tax should we put up to make up the difference?

I don't know - the state might consider requiring less revenue. How did the UK (And the US for that matter) manage to build roads, railways, fine building etc without such levels of taxation?

Yes. Let's go back to Victorian workplace practices so that a few miserable, selfish types can avoid inheritance tax.

[Guybrush]

If inheritance tax were abolished, it doesn't mean the state will never see the money. If fact, they may see more in the form of VAT on goods purchased, more employment (people spending more) and goodwill from knowing what you are working for may benefit your children and their families. Taking money by force in the form of a tax on those who have assets is surely unjustified. It's clear it's destructive, otherwise farms, the royal family and other inheritance tax exempt groups would not be exempt.

[zygalski]

Guybrush said:

If inheritance tax were abolished, it doesn't mean the state will never see the money. If fact, they may see more in the form of VAT on goods purchased, more employment (people spending more) and goodwill from knowing what you are working for may benefit your children and their families. Taking money by force in the form of a tax on those who have assets is surely unjustified. It's clear it's destructive, otherwise farms, the royal family and other inheritance tax exempt groups would not be exempt.

Such a shame no treasury since 1694 agrees with you on that one, eh?

[Randy Winkman]

zygalski said:

johnfm said:

Randy Winkman said:

If we get rid of inheritance tax, which tax should we put up to make up the difference?

I don't know - the state might consider requiring less revenue. How did the UK (And the US for that matter) manage to build roads, railways, fine building etc without such levels of taxation?

Yes. Let's go back to Victorian workplace practices so that a few miserable, selfish types can avoid inheritance tax.

Exactly. Loads of people worked hard for a pittance and in the cases stated, I'd wager that a fair number lost their lives. Or at least arms/legs.

[glazbagun]

grumbledoak said:

Isn't the Guardian organised as a trust so it doesn't have to pay tax?

I think it doesn't need to pay tax because it's losing a fortune.

[anonymous-user]

zygalski said:

Hosenbugler said:

zygalski said:

Hosenbugler said:

zygalski said:

Hosenbugler said:

Inheritance tax is just another example of state stealing, an assault on the wishes of the deceased. My estate is and will be sewn up tight, the bds will not get a cent from my estate when I go.

The threshold is £325000 , which means just about any homeowner in the home counties is susceptible to being collared if they have the misfortune to die. fking disgraceful , the odious pointy nosed Labour lefties love it of course , obsessed with other peoples money.

So which tax would you put up to compensate for the loss of £5bn pa inheritance tax revenue?

None, spend less.

Ok, so that's your credibility gone in 3 words.

Only in the eyes of those obsessed with other peoples assets and earnings.

I don't begrudge paying inheritance tax on my assets.

.

So say many who know that they'll never have to, and I'd bet that you're one of them.

[WindyMills]

BJG1 said:

I don't know if inheritance tax is the correct means but there needs to be a system in place that stops the transfer of land and wealth from generation-to-generation. With Dukes and the like, there has often never been any real sense of 'earning' the money and taking it away from that family is simply righting a wrong which occurred hundreds of years ago.

It's important because the current system doesn't encourage the most economically efficient use of capital and assets. Passing on that estate to a 25 year old who may or may not have any business or entrepreunerial talent is much worse for the country than were it to be accessible to the open market and made best use of.

A Land Value Tax would achieve this.

[Derek Smith]

TwigtheWonderkid said:

I never said we invented it, and I never said we didn't play a key role in abolishing it. But for many years we were major players in it, many Brits made fortunes, as did ports and associated supporting businesses, and the government benefited hugely from tax on the profits of the slave trade.

Let's not try and pretend otherwise.

Bristol was built on the slave trade and a small number of people made considerable fortunes out of it.

There are any number of ways to get around inheritance tax, one of which is to give some money to your nok.

The money is not taken from anybody other than the deceased. When one of them complains then perhaps we should do something about it.

[Randy Winkman]

REALIST123 said:

zygalski said:

Hosenbugler said:

zygalski said:

Hosenbugler said:

zygalski said:

Hosenbugler said:

Inheritance tax is just another example of state stealing, an assault on the wishes of the deceased. My estate is and will be sewn up tight, the bds will not get a cent from my estate when I go.

The threshold is £325000 , which means just about any homeowner in the home counties is susceptible to being collared if they have the misfortune to die. fking disgraceful , the odious pointy nosed Labour lefties love it of course , obsessed with other peoples money.

So which tax would you put up to compensate for the loss of £5bn pa inheritance tax revenue?

None, spend less.

Ok, so that's your credibility gone in 3 words.

Only in the eyes of those obsessed with other peoples assets and earnings.

I don't begrudge paying inheritance tax on my assets.

.

So say many who know that they'll never have to, and I'd bet that you're one of them.

May I say that I will almost certainly pay inheritance tax, but when it happens, I shall be grateful for all the money I'm getting for absolutely zero effort. I wont begrudge the tax I'm paying at all.

[chow pan toon]

REALIST123 said:

So say many who know that they'll never have to, and I'd bet that you're one of them.

When the time comes I won't feel too hard done by that I only get X hundred thousand pounds that I haven't earned rather than Y hundred thousand pounds that I haven't earned.

[turbobloke]

PurpleMoonlight said:

Randy Winkman said:

If we get rid of inheritance tax, which tax should we put up to make up the difference?

Tax the growth on property via CGT.

I cannot see any justification for it to be exempt.

Better still, don't tax anything else - and the best suggestion has already been made namely abolish IHT, at which point there will be zero IHT avoidance.

The Grauniad article is supposedly about greed, in which case what justification is there for government greed, including government greed by proxy? Apart from the loathsome concept at State level of easy come easy go.

The government should spend less, to remain living within our means as a nation, as suggested previously.

SpeckledJim said:

I thought PH was all for earning ones own money, not being given it?

TBH I can't recall seeing any posts in any threads over the past 14 years which oppose gifting. Nor have lottery wins been the subject of any opposition afaics.

When déja vu strikes...

zygalski said:

Hosenbugler said:

spend less.

Ok, so that's your credibility gone

Not at all, but gone already is the credibility of what are almost always spendthrift Labour governments who cannot run an economy within the country's means and cannot run the economy in any case without blowing it up. The last 50 years has shown this beyond doubt.

[zygalski]

REALIST123 said:

zygalski said:

Hosenbugler said:

zygalski said:

Hosenbugler said:

zygalski said:

Hosenbugler said:

Inheritance tax is just another example of state stealing, an assault on the wishes of the deceased. My estate is and will be sewn up tight, the bds will not get a cent from my estate when I go.

The threshold is £325000 , which means just about any homeowner in the home counties is susceptible to being collared if they have the misfortune to die. fking disgraceful , the odious pointy nosed Labour lefties love it of course , obsessed with other peoples money.

So which tax would you put up to compensate for the loss of £5bn pa inheritance tax revenue?

None, spend less.

Ok, so that's your credibility gone in 3 words.

Only in the eyes of those obsessed with other peoples assets and earnings.

I don't begrudge paying inheritance tax on my assets.

.

So say many who know that they'll never have to, and I'd bet that you're one of them.

Nope. Already over the current threshold in the new place.
Sorry to disappoint.

[anonymous-user]

chow pan toon said:

REALIST123 said:

So say many who know that they'll never have to, and I'd bet that you're one of them.

When the time comes I won't feel too hard done by that I only get X hundred thousand pounds that I haven't earned rather than Y hundred thousand pounds that I haven't earned.

This is PH, if you're not totally against inheritance, or any other tax, you're jealous or poor or a communist,

[turbobloke]

zygalski said:

Nope. Already over the current threshold in the new place.
Sorry to disappoint.

Leave it to the Labour Party. You know it makes sense.

[anonymous-user]

REALIST123 said:

So say many who know that they'll never have to, and I'd bet that you're one of them.

How vulgar.

[turbobloke]

el stovey said:

REALIST123 said:

So say many who know that they'll never have to, and I'd bet that you're one of them.

How vulgar.

Almost as bad as passing the port to the right.