Is it time for a wealth tax?

Ihavenojob said:
It depends how they define wealth. A pensioner on just a state pension living in a terraced house in a former slum area of London, which is now worth £1m, is not wealthy.
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This is the critical issue. Well, one of them!

You could have a mansion tax set at say, £2m.

If you can show, by divulging all your 'wealth', that you are say, a pensioner in London with a £2m house, but nowt else, you pay nothing. The exchequer takes the house on death. If family bitch, they pay the tax over time and get the house on Mum's death. If you have a second home, you pay up, or hand over one (you can choose) to the state. Any house in the umbrella of a company pays it. Simple really. I'm sure it's not!
 
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charliegolf said:
This is the critical issue. Well, one of them!

You could have a mansion tax set at say, £2m.

If you can show, by divulging all your 'wealth', that you are say, a pensioner in London with a £2m house, but nowt else, you pay nothing. The exchequer takes the house on death. If family bitch, they pay the tax over time and get the house on Mum's death. If you have a second home, you pay up, or hand over one (you can choose) to the state. Any house in the umbrella of a company pays it. Simple really. I'm sure it's not!
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LVT time.
 
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I met a retired Londoner who did live in a house that wasn't much larger than his current double garage. Typical London small terraced. He sold it and moved to what might be loosely called the north midlands. A bit past what is usually referred to as the midlands. Retired taxi driver. The house he lived in may have been knocked down by now and replaced with something more expensive. Maybe apartment blocks. If still there it will probably be rented now. If replaced that may well be rented as well.

While property is the only thing that shows any return on money house prices will be as they are. Low interest rates help keep them like that as does buy to let mortgages. Some people use their existing property as surety to do that even before they have fully paid for it. The feeble idea of building lots more to create a surplus is unlikely to help. If cheap they are likely to finish up rented at some point anyway.

LOL Affordable housing - it will be priced at the same level as similar properties. Timber frame brings building costs down but doesn't seem to help with price. Not round here anyway. Freehold probably has something to do with that. Cramming more houses into a given area helps as does dropping certain living standards regarding room sizes etc as it gets more on an area of land.

;) Main problem with people buying a house for the first time these days is expectations and what they feel they should be able to buy. Salaries haven't kept pace with that. Price wise they may find an apartment is the only answer.

2nd homes and houses people retire too near the sea etc have their interesting aspects as well. The people in them spend money and don't take up jobs for one.
 
JohnD said:
It's a potential replacement for Council Tax and Business Rates calculated on the notional value of the land.

Hence

Land
Value
Tax
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As if that will help. If used it will be just to get more money in as poll tax was later switched to council tax replacing ratable value initially. With multiple earners in a property poll tax makes a lot more sense really as does local income tax for other reasons. Why for instance should I pay to help about 1m people a day come into B'ham every day. :) I aught to be compensated for it.

There has already been an interesting change in business rates. A council can choose to keep their business rates rather than all collected centrally and supposedly distributed on the basis of need. Think what that does to poorer areas. Done it's said to persuade councils to encourage businesses - LOL.
 
charliegolf said:
I thank you Sir- obvs when you see it in print!
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There have been lots of discussion about LVT on here and why it is a very efficient tax and less distortionary than income taxes.

The fact we won't see it in our lifetimes is simply because it would hit the landed gentry and land bankers hard.

You could do away with a lot of other taxes and its collections would be a lot easier.
 
I read the paper.

It misses a few things..

- a "wealth tax" would really be a tax on those who live in areas of high demand.
- it doesn't account for the relative differences in quality of living in different locations.
- It doesn't consider tax proportions already paid by the "wealthy"
- It doesn't account for the ability to reclassify wealth.

I wasn't convinced. I think it would become a southerner tax. Someone living on land worth £1M in London, isn't as wealthy as someone living in Yorkshire
 
motorbiking said:
It misses a few things..
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You ain't kidding. As a for instance pensions are part backed by land ownership also property and insurance. Even houses can come into that. It seems that some one gained their collection of houses flogged the lot and used the money to by an annuity and got away with arguing it was their pension pot. More or less following what company pensions did a long time ago. They moved their assets to property as the returns where higher than what they did tend to use which was inclined to be large manufacturing companies and maybe some property aspects. Over time property offered a much higher return.

Then what about the National Trust etc. There are still some that can still run a stately home usually via what I call old money as made yonks ago.
eg ;) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugh_Grosvenor,_7th_Duke_of_Westminster
He probably lives in more sensible accommodation.

There is also a sting in the tail

The standard Inheritance Tax rate is 40%. It's only charged on the part of your estate that's above the threshold. Example Your estate is worth £500,000 and your tax-free threshold is £325,000. The Inheritance Tax charged will be 40% of £175,000 (£500,000 minus £325,000).

Something that is usually adjusted but not this time it seems but can be got round. Something I should probably done something about some time ago but didn't need to to when I looked into it. Live in an expensive house - no not really. Probably some number over 400k but not much over as I have an odd view of maintaining house value so could even be a bit less.

Then people tend to concentrate on income tax costs without regarding the total tax take and how that is achieved. I do believe money spent on us could be swung about but direct increases in tax take from income tax are not a good way of getting elected ;) even if it would make sense.
 
JohnD said:
It's a potential replacement for Council Tax and Business Rates calculated on the notional value of the land.

Hence

Land
Value
Tax
Click to expand...
How will that work, is it a set price for land across the country, or done by area ? The pensioner I alluded to in an earlier post, would the the small plot of land they're living on in London be worth more than that of a a millionaires estate of several acres of green belt land ?
 
ajohn said:
There is probably more mileage in actually collecting all of the tax that should be collected , including corporation tax especially from globals.
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Time to remove the 'corporate welfare subsidy' - aka tax credits.

And get companies to pay a decent wage.
ajohn said:
Some are surprised who pays most of the tax bill.
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Mainly those receiving tax credits or those who have admitted to be benefit scroungers ;)
 
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