100% inheritance tax?

[Kendodd]

Or 95%, something like that.
Thought experiment.
How would it pan out?

The rich would just weasel out of it. It would mostly affect the middle classes and working class who have done well for themselves. It would be rubbish for social mobility and I can't trust the government to spend it wisely.

Tax is paid when money or property passes from one person to another - income tax is one example but also VAT, stamp duty, capital gains.

Your mum paid tax on her gain. Nothing else to pay while she hangs on to it. Once it passes to you, that’s your gain and you pay tax on it.

Should someone who inherits £50k, for example, pay less tax than someone who buys a painting for £10k and sells it for £60k? Flat rate for everything would save a lot of fancy footwork amongst tax accountants.

It might be somewhat fairer if the tax paid were assessed on wealth of the recipient. Then hardworking parents could leave things to children. The rich would find a way to not pay though. They always do, and as parliament of made up of them and their chums, they always will.

I think we need a lot fewer allowances, loopholes, exemptions and exceptions. It just lets the people with the best accountants wriggle out of it all the time and doesn’t benefit people who are worse off.

"If I didn't think my son would inherit anything, I'd step right off the gas and my tax contribution would tank."

Giving your children a helping hand rather than dishing it out to randomers via taxation is such a massive instinctive drive. The cleaner in my last job worked till late cleaning. She worked as an interpreter in a refugee centre in the mornings and at weekends I think, and also earned a bit as a part time masseuse. I don't know if she paid tax on the latter but I'm pretty certain she did in the other two jobs. She had some health problems and I had to drive her home one night when she was on the verge of collapse. She had one child, who she was putting through college. I think she was a single parent. He was (is) the apple of her eye and I used to hear all about him when I was working late and she was cleaning the place. The day he graduated she was pretty much exploding with pride. I bet she'll keep her foot on the gas now to help him out as much as possible and try to leave him something.

If the government was going to take it all I don't think she'd flog herself like that, as it is she's a powerhouse of productivity.

How are people leaving inheritance intending on funding their elderly care?

Do you have enough for both?

Oh a d the comments on this thread show why wealth inequality is as bad as it is

Not that I think inheritance tax is the answer to that

@Topgub there are ways around deprivation of assets. You can pass money to your children long before you die or put it in trust.

You don't get to divvy it up. You pay for care and then what's left is your estate. Inheritance tax is paid on that.

@roarfeckingroarr

Are you saying you'll hide money to avoid paying for your elderly care?

@dolphinsarentcommon

Right.

So all the people saying they are ou working so they can leave all the money to their kids must be confident they can do both

People would just give their assets and cash to their beneficiaries early, and hope that they lasted as least as long as the 7 year rule.

No. We're hoping we don't need care because if we do what we've managed to save for the last 50 years will disappear.

so are you going to give all yours away then OP?

@dolphinsarentcommon

Why wouldnt you need care?!

If this was a thing a lot of people would intentionally die broke, I know I would. Blow the lot, wind down the house and live in a rented bed sit.

it would bugger up a lot of charities too ho get inheritance gifts

You think everyone does? You don't think people die young? Die at the end of disease? In hospital or at home?

It would be chaos because everyone would be trying to spend everything they have while they’re alive. Some people would run out of money and end up needing state help. There would be a boom in equity release schemes.

I knew if I weren’t going to be allowed to leave anything to my dc, I’d be busy spending it now. We’d all have a flat each instead of sharing one larger family home so it would put even more pressure on housing.

If I do end up needing elderly care, the state would have to pay because I’d have very little left.

The average life expectancy is 88 I think?

So yeah people do die young but not that many and from experience they rely dont want to.

People cling on to very little quality of life.

Most people aren't wishing they'll die young to avoid care home fees

@ClocksGoingBackwards

How will the state pay?

People tend to die in their eighties which means inheritance goes to their children who are probably in their fifties or sixties. I really don't think the average mid- fifty year old to mid-sixty year old needs a lot of financial help.

There is a greater need IMO to help people in their mid-twenties - mid thirties who may want to work, buy a property and have a family (as well as other groups in need). Inheritance doesn't help people in need. I think it should be taxed significantly.

I'd be surprised if the cleaner in your story had any assets to leave when she dies. It seems to be the way, the people struggling the most and working the hardest, accumulate the least.

No. We hope for long healthy lives without 'clinging on' in desperation.

What would you prefer? We top ourselves before we become a burden and hand over our life savings to the government at the same time?

I'm not paying off a mortgage knowing that the lot will go to the state when I die.

Feck that!!

Hmm socialist by name own inheritance is ok by nature

@dolphinsarentcommon

I would prefer wealth equality where no one was destitute really.

And for people to acknowledge that it's just as scroungy to hide wealth so they can avoid care home fees and leave inheritance as it is to live off benefits

The NHS is literally buckling because of over use (elderly care) and lack of funding.

People will constantly moan about the poor 'service' they get from their gp.

Yet they'll still think it's OK to make sure they avoid inheritance tax and care home fees

But of a head scratcher eh?