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Original poster

To think that the mansion tax breaks the principles of taxation

159 replies

NorthXNorthWest · 29/11/2025 10:26

Most taxes fall into:
Income you receive
Profit you realise
Spending you choose

Council tax sit outisde of this. Its more like levy based valuation bandings and was a quick and dirty fix after the poll tax fiasco. It is effectively a service charge not a wealth tax.

Whereas mansion tax is the government estimating the value your actual house, then treating this valuation as pure profit then taxing you on this. Given the majority of homes are purchased with mortgages and paid for by already taxed money:

Why is

Mansion Tax = Estmated value × %

More reasonable than

CGT = Profit * % (Profit = Actual sales price - (Purchase price + actutal costs)

With actual costs being renovations not stamp duty or interest paid on your mortgage

I am not in the mansion tax bracket. I do accept that some taxes need to rise but I don't believe this is the solution.

OP posts:
user1471538275 · 29/11/2025 11:30

I was very glad to hear that Royal residences will also be incurring the tax!

I'm a big fan of property taxes, land taxes.

I think the biggest issue we have is related to our housing, and who is holding so much of it.

It needs redistribution - I'd personally start with one of the excess palaces being turned into very basic apartments for key workers in London.

AlastheDaffodils · 29/11/2025 11:27

Council tax is not a service charge. It’s a very crude wealth tax. If it was a service charge they wouldn’t charge more to people in more expensive houses.

On the whole I think we need more taxes on wealth and less on income or spending.

schoolfriend · 29/11/2025 11:16

ShesTheAlbatross · 29/11/2025 10:56

Inheritance tax falls outside your principles (it’s not tax on income received because the estate can’t avoid it by leaving a tiny amount of money to a large number of people).

Road tax? That’s not income, spending, or profit.

Council tax as you acknowledge is another exception.

There’s no rule that tax has to fall into those categories.

I think there are coherent arguments to be made against the mansion tax. I just do not think this is one of them.

What do you think the coherent arguments against it are, out of interest?

Swiftie1878 · 29/11/2025 11:09

Tbh, the mansion ‘tax’ is so piddling in value, it’s really just a political statement - ‘Look! We’re taxing the rich!’

Absolute nonsense.

SerendipityJane · 29/11/2025 11:09

Summerhillsquare · 29/11/2025 10:28

Property and land taxes were the first taxes, the basis of the Domesday book in England.

Original English taxes for English people !

GeneralPeter · 29/11/2025 11:02

With tax you are basically looking for the least-bad option.

A property value tax is far preferable to SDLT and CGT, which discourage transactions. That makes the property market far less fluid, people don’t up-size/down-size/move for work.

They should have abolished SDLT and made it all a property value tax. Most wealth taxes are a bad idea partly because it’s easy to move wealth, but that doesn’t apply to property value tax in the same way.

ShesTheAlbatross · 29/11/2025 10:56

Inheritance tax falls outside your principles (it’s not tax on income received because the estate can’t avoid it by leaving a tiny amount of money to a large number of people).

Road tax? That’s not income, spending, or profit.

Council tax as you acknowledge is another exception.

There’s no rule that tax has to fall into those categories.

I think there are coherent arguments to be made against the mansion tax. I just do not think this is one of them.

schoolfriend · 29/11/2025 10:48

There are no principals of taxation. Democratically elected governments can tax what they like.

Summerhillsquare · 29/11/2025 10:28

Property and land taxes were the first taxes, the basis of the Domesday book in England.