What tax do you most hate

[Taxta]

I’m torn between stamp duty and inheritance tax.

VAT because it disproportionately affects the low paid.

Well they won’t be taxed it on it, they’ll be dead. You’ll be taxed on it though

In that case 100% of your earnings should go to the state when you die - and not your children

How on earth is IHT “taxing people for services they had during their lifetime but didn’t pay enough tax for”? How do you know what tax they paid?
I pay a metric fuck ton of tax, if I never worked again I’d still be a net contributor for the rest of my life. I’ve inherited nothing, I’ve paid tax at a higher rate on everything I’ve earned, on time, every time, and yet when I’m dead it gets taxed again?

Well the fact is, most people do have children. And you can’t pretend to know how millions of people would act if there was 100% IHT.

This is my view too. Once you’re dead you’re not being taxed. Your relatives are paying tax on an unearned inheritance. And to be paying inheritance you must be inheriting a pretty penny so just be grateful you’re lucky enough to have family who have that much to leave you

This doesn't make sense.

you say other tax can be avoided by altering behaviour. So can iht.

and there are a number of ways to mitigate it, often down to zero.

Me too! Great idea.

I wasn’t the one pretending to know how people who react. You implied people would choose to not work as hard to better their own life just because they couldn’t leave their wealth to children

I completely agree. As a firmly working-class person who could never be in a position to send my DC to private school - and probably wouldn't even if I could - I still don't quite understand how somebody who is paying for private education and is thus saving the state a load of money should be punished for it.

The same with private healthcare, imho.

I knew I was going to find this thread annoying, but it still drew me in.

The tax not paid by billionnaires and multinationals is the worst.

I don't see how inherritance tax is bad - your parents bought a house for £80k, it's now worth £1.6m. Nobody in the family has done anything to increase that value, so it seems totally fair that the £600k over threshold (£1m is tax free) should be taxed.

This is what I think. No one inehrits anything, even playing field, raise a ton of money for the state. Winner!

Stamp duty - puts me off downsizing.

No, I realise that it's highly improbably in reality... but the avoidance measures depend on people being savv enough and having the time and wherewithal to plan and prepare.

It's the fact that you have to actively put plans in place to thwart the government, rather than the default being that, with a simple lifestyle, you wouldn't be liable for them in the first place.

And for those of us who that does not apply to? Who haven’t just passively sat in an increasing asset, but have worked massively long hours, taken all the risk, and done everything to “increase that value”? How do you differentiate?

Are any of them going to put these tax changes in their manifestos?

Does it make any difference in reality if they do promise them before getting into power?!

By the time the tax needs to be paid you will be dead, so it won't have any impact on you at all.

Council tax ,hate it with a passion.
Higher every year and less to show for it every year , absolute rip off.

All tax is theft, when it's forced charity rather than fairly paying for joint services. Which is where we are now.

Stamp duty is treating us like medieval serfs. I had to give the government an entire year of income in order to be permitted to buy my last house. Not actually paying for the house: just to be permitted to buy it.

IHT is evil: stealing from the dead, from their last gift to their bereaved children.

This is a common misunderstanding but most people don’t pay tax in advance if they are self employed.

Let’s say you earned £40k in the tax year to 5 April 2025, and kept earning that amount up to 5 April 2026.

Your first tax return (for 2024/25) is due by 31 January 2026. At that point you pay tax on income that you earned in FY2024/25 (ie you are paying the tax due almost 10 months AFTER the end of the tax year that you earned the money).

You are also asked to pay 50% of the anticipated tax “on account” for the 25/26 tax year - assuming your income is smooth, this is also tax on money you have already earned, in the 6 months from 6 April 2025.

At no point do you pay tax on money that you haven’t earned, unless your earnings have dropped and you failed to amend your payments on account (which is easy to do) or are not very smooth throughout the year.

By contrast, those of us on PAYE pay our tax instantly, as soon as each penny is earned!

do you mean how would an IHT system differentiate between an inheritance of £1.6m in property value vs an inheritance of £1.6m in savings from working?

It wouldn’t. Because from the heir’s perspective - the person who pays the tax - they are both equally a windfall.

Oh, I see...I stand corrected. Thank you for the explanation ☺️

No. But it does make me think why bother. If the state can “double dip” which is absolutely what they are doing, what’s the point?
If the state decided for example that all housing should be government owned, would you be happy if they came to take yours, that you’d worked and paid for, after you died?

It would be fairer overall than the current system!

Why would it?