if you can't outthink myleene klass then your not ready to become one of the most powerful people in the world

[lhldn]

I'm talking about red ed on ITV's the agenda. Myleene wasn't particularly good, I mean she said you couldn't even buy a garage for 2 million in London and while London is expensive , its not that expensive.

[aermingers]

That mansion tax idea is fucking ridiculous. If you earn under £42,000 you will be allowed to 'defer' your payment until your house changes hands. So in other words if you are a relatively poor person who happened to be lucky enough to buy a house before the bubble and have one single valuable asset then the state will take a big chunk of that asset off you if decide to liquidate it. Yeah, that's really socialist isn't it.

And all these people going 'Yeah, stick it to the rich'. £42,000? In central London? That could be two people who are on a salary of £21,000 each who have been lucky enough to inherit a decent home to live in rather than the type of hovel people in London on salaries of that level normally have to live in.

Badly thought out crap idea. It will just become another method of forcing the poor out of London.

[lhldn]

Labour's mansion tax will be progressive. Those owning properties worth £2-3 million will only pay an extra £250 a month through this new tax – the same as the average top band of council tax. We think that owners and investors in properties worth tens of millions of pounds should make a much bigger contribution. And we will look at asking overseas owners of second homes in the UK to make a larger contribution than people living in their only home. It can’t be right that the foreign buyer of a £140 million flat in Westminster earlier this year will pay just £26 a week in council tax – the same as the average-value property in that council area.
www.labour.org.uk/blog/entry/six-things-you-need-to-know-about-labours-mansion-tax

How can you bbe poor living in a 2 million house?

[Alibabaandthe40nappies]

We? Labour activist are we then OP?

[lhldn]

That was a copy and paste. Hardly but I do like mansion tax.

[aermingers]

'Only' £250 a month? So, if you are, for example, somebody who bought a house in Brixton or Notting Hill back when they were shitholes and you could picks something up for peanuts, you should be taxed £250 a month even if you are on a below average salary? Just to live in your own home? The threshold is £42,000 a year. That could be two people earning £21,000 a year each, well below the national average salary. Yet you just stick the word 'mansion' in front of it and people will assume that it's just going to be a tax on the super rich when it's not.

There are going to be people who are earning well below the national average who are going to be forced out of their homes because of this.

It makes me bloody angry, because it's the same people who went crazy about how unjust the bedroom tax was because it was using financial hardship to force people out of their homes into somewhere smaller with less bedrooms who are saying how wonderful this tax is.

There should be a more sensible income limit as well. Perhaps families with an income over £80,000. And people with incomes under that not having to pay it at all rather than paying it 'deferred' when they sell their homes.

[aermingers]

You can be poor living in a £2 million home because it is your HOME, not merely an asset which has monetary value but somewhere you live. If you or your family bought it back when property prices weren't crazy and you just want to carry on living somewhere you've always lived. In your home. Why was it so dreadful when pensioners and poor people were being forced out of their homes by the bedroom tax but when they mansion tax will do it to people apparently this is all fine and dandy and they deserve it because a property market which is completely out of their control has made their home more expensive?

[Alibabaandthe40nappies]

It is a tax born purely out of jealousy, nothing more.

Implementing it on 2nd homes/additional properties would be one thing, but taxing people's primary residence is just disgusting. If you have paid off your mortgage then no-one should be able to take your home from you, no-one. This tax would be an insidious debt running up in the background even for pensioners who can't afford to pay it. Vile.

[lhldn]

Its a tax born out of people in very expensive houses paying not much more council tax than people in tiny two bveds. Just given the name mansion tax to sex it up.

[Springheeled]

Rubbish.

I didn't see such whinging about the bedroom tax, which genuinely IS unfair, and has led to suicides.
It's hardly jealousy to say that taxation should be progressive and I can't believe in this day and age people say such nonsense- by this day and age I mean a time when those at the top of society have grown infinitely richer while those at the bottom scrabble for less and less.

The tragedy is that the Labour Party is too shit scared and clueless to stand up for progressive measures- it's not just Ed, a decent man, but the whole lot of them. The mansion tax is one of their few decent policies IMO.

And it's you're not your OP

[Springheeled]

X posted- the rubbish was in response to the 'tax born from jealousy' bollocks!

[aermingers]

Alibaba, I totally agree with you. A tax on second homes and additional properties would be far more preferable in my opinion.

When the bedroom tax was proposed there was widespread outrage that people might be forced out of homes which they had lived in for 40-50 years and forced into somewhere smaller because 'That is their home'. There was much emotive discussion of old people being forced out of their communities and the garden's they had spent so much time on and the homes that they had done DIY in and lovingly looked after. Yet if you happened to buy your home on a modest salary in the 50s, 60s or 70s and that home has appreciated in value because of a property bubble beyond your control then you should be punitively taxed.

It's ridiculous. And if the tax is 'deferred' because you are on a low income then you're going to have a triple whammy of care home fees, inheritance tax and deferred 'mansion' tax. And that might take away an inheritance which was going to be your children's only chance of getting on the property ladder in London.

It's being dressed up as a tax which will only affect the super rich, in reality there are going to be a hell of a lot of people who are not rich who are going to lose their homes because they simply can't afford it.

But apparently if you do that to someone in social housing it's terrible. If you do it to someone who's bought their own home it's fine.

[AuntieStella]

Perhaps it should be based on the price you paid for your house, not the price it might realise if you sold it?

So those who can afford to buy a £2m+ house face an extra tax, but not those who bought a £200,000 house.

And as it's going to be a tax mainly on Londoners, perhaps it would be better levied by the Mayor for Londoners (other regions able to do same if they want).

[SaucyJack]

I think it's fine. £3000 a year off the sale of a £2,000,000 house is not a "big chunk".

I also think the loss of the spare room subsidy is fair.

What would be fairest of all tho would be much higher rates of tax on second properties. No one needs to own more than one house.

[Damnautocorrect]

I rent a hovel worth close to a million, it's virtually falling down but is worth it due to the area and potential.

This tax will make me homeless and my son have to move miles and miles from his school. My landlord won't pay it if it's his responsibility and I sure as hell can't.
Our income isn't close to £40,000
Yes the whole housing thing makes me pretty damn suicidal and depressed.

[Pixel]

See I don't think the basic premise behind the bedroom tax is unfair, after all there is a housing shortage and many families living in cramped conditions so why should someone else be able to have extra rooms all to themselves?
What is unfair is the complete lack of compassion and common sense in the way it was implemented. There should have been an acknowledgement that there were limited properties for people to downsize to and also lots more exemptions (disabled people who needed space for carers and equipment, and foster carers, as two examples).

This 'mansion' tax will no doubt be more of the same, with the wrong people being punished for something that is out of their control.

[originalusernamefail]

I live oop north quite near to Ilkley. I have worked as a district nurse visiting the Ilkley elderly. Several of the houses there would be worth 2+ million however the widowed ladies

[originalusernamefail]

Sorry baby post! There were houses were widowed ladies were living in a single room on the state pension. They had bought there houses in the 20s-30s for a few thousand. Where would they get "just" £250 per month.

[Audeca]

if you can't outthink myleene klass then your not ready to become one of the most powerful people in the world

I think he did a good job. What else could anyone do when exposed to the rantings of a rich, selfish celebrity who just shouts over the top of their opponent?

Klas also has absolutely no understanding of tax, as she amply demonstrated when she said:

You may as well just tax me on this glass of water. You can’t just point at things and tax them.

Bottled water is currently taxed at 20% VAT and water to commercial premises (like a TV studio) is also taxed at 20% VAT.

[Audeca]

@Damnautocorrect

I rent a hovel worth close to a million

This tax will make me homeless

As your house is worth approx. £1 million below the threshold I think it's safe to say that you won't be made homeless as the house wouldn't be eligible for the tax.

[Audeca]

@originalusernamefail

There were houses were widowed ladies were living in a single room on the state pension. They had bought there houses in the 20s-30s for a few thousand. Where would they get "just" £250 per month.

C'mon then, lets see some examples backed up by links & research.

[fancyanotherfez]

Damnautocorrect didnt say she would be paying the tax, but that her landlord would pass it on to her her.

I think it makes more sense to add an extra stamp duty on selling a home over £2 million, as you are making a profit, sometimes huge, on an asset.

Myleene Klass lives near me. I see her in Sainsburys. She could get a very nice 3 bedroom period house in a nice area for less than £2 million round where we live!

[GinnelsandWhippets]

The mansion tax is badly thought out and doomed to failure. How do they plan to measure a house's value when it's not for sale? What happens if a house is valued at over 2mil, taxed, and then drops in value - so the owners get a refund? It's a silly policy which doesn't stand up ro much scrutiny when it comes to practicalities. Why not just reassess council tax bands? That's a tax nechanism we already have in place.

[noblegiraffe]

I rent a hovel worth close to a million....This tax will make me homeless

Why it only applies to homes above £2 million.

Are there really loads of poor people living in multimillion pound homes? Would it be acceptable if it were raised to 3 or 4 million?

[iggly2]

If it controls house prices, which is needed, then BRILLIANT. Think of your children, they pay when prices rise.

[Audeca]

@fancyanotherfez

Damnautocorrect didnt say she would be paying the tax, but that her landlord would pass it on to her her.

Nonsense.

The landlord would have nothing to pass on since the house she rents is worth £1 million less than the threshold at which the tax would kick in!