Tax

The Tories have finally come up with a policy that doesn't involve taxes for breathing but the abolition of the loathed death tax. Although they haven't quite abolished it, leaving those with estates above £1M still liable. A bit pointless that though, anyone with that much dosh can afford to use a tax planner and get round most of it anyway. I am willing to bet that the proposed system will raise less than the cost of administering it, so why not abolish the tax altogether and get rid of the raft of civil servants that have to be payed to take our money away? A few more savings to got there then.

As any fule no, the death tax is particularly hated for 3 reasons:

1). It is a tax on previously taxed income.
2). It is a tax on a gift, why should there be taxes involved when you want to give away your hard earned dosh?
3). Grieving people tend to be a tad upset. The death tax, like kicking a man when he's down, is just fucking rude.


Apart from the obvious* the motive behind the death tax was to break up the big estates and whether you agree with this motive or not, it was fairly successful. We have now reached the point that none of the few surviving grand estates are going to be affected by IHT and so that purpose has been served as far as possible.

However, the lefties, as exemplified by the otherwise excellent Chicken Yogurt, are far from happy. CY complains that the Tories are happy for "Ike" to inherit whilst lambasting "Mike", (great names), for daring to be on the dole. This exposes a fundamental difference between the left and right that in one sense I am happy to see. A bit of clear water makes the choices we have that much easier. However, that doesn't make me think any more of the left's position which is that all money belongs to the government and those who have earned it are just holding it on a contingent basis. In contrast, the right wing view is that if you have earned something, especially if you have already paid tax on it, then it's yours and the state should fuck off.

Ike is inheriting because his mother wishes to dispose of the property she has built up and has chosen to hand it over to her son. Mike is getting money forcibly taken from others.

I hope that squares the circle for CY but somehow I doubt he will be willing to change his views on this.

* The government being money grabbing bastards.