to think mansion tax is an unfair tax on London and the South East?

[goodnessgracious]

I disagree with mansion tax but regardless it seems to me to be unfair on Londoners.

Aibu to think that it may also force some people to sell their properties who are income poor but property rich?

House prices can go down as well as up. I wonder if the Dutch government managed to tax people's equity in tulips before the market crashed?

or could it be that Labour have realised that their voters might never own a £2m so they can say "let the rich bastards pay" while the bulk might hope one day to win the lottery and see they have a chance of that, so don't want their dreams taxed?

scous, many are recent buyers with less equity than the £500k house owners, though. Only the old people who have had a house for years and have repaid mortgages have the big equity in £2m homes.
Any equity we made went to my children's father, or a good chunk of it, on the divorce.

I suppose those leech like women who have never worked and live off male earnings and get the house in the divorce will be some I may be glad are subject to the tax - low or no income, only assert a house and no other savings. There will be divorce law issues here - if the divorce has laready happened and they got a clean break and the house they cannot go back to the husband for higher spousal support to pay for it. May be they will actually have to get jobs and work full time like the rest of us.

mintyy
Agreed that incomers affect London prices. However, they are often non resident incomers who could be targeted by specific measures / taxes.

The mansion tax is grossly unfair. The very rich won't pay it - they are overseas and houses are held in trusts. The people who will suffer are the retired who are cash poor.

If you live around these parts, you already commute over an hour every day so moving out and commuting is not an option.

This will also hurt the property market.. Flats and smaller houses will become more expensive as those people stay as opposed to moving up the ladder, thus hurting first time buyers and those on lower incomes.

What you mean the same women who live off their husband's earnings, who have a happy marriage and bring up their children jointly greengrow. You sound bitter. Although I doubt there are many women who would be the beneficiaries of £2million plus houses if they were unfortunate enough to be married to the wrong man.

Yes but suppose 2 identical couples bought houses for the same price way back when, one in the North and one in the South. Both pay the same mortgage repayments but years later the house in the North is now worth £500k and the one in the South is worth over £2m. Why should that £1.5m of unearned income not be taxed in some way?

It isn't income unless they actually sell it Scousadelic

Scousedelic
Because it's not income unless you sell. Otherwise it's just a number on a piece of paper. So you're basically saying: pay up because a number on a piece of paper is now bigger. No, we don't care you haven't asked for your house to increase in value, we don't care you're still on the same wage as 10 years ago when you bought it. Just pay now for the privilege of living in the same house you have always lived in.

Scousadelic - but neither has that money unless they sell! If they are living in the houses and still using them, then it's just potential money they might get if they sell up. And there's an argument for taxing the profit on house sales, but if both bought houses at the same value, paid the same amounts, and are still on roughly the same income, why should one just be told they now have to pay another tax because other people who in the interim have been buying and selling houses have pushed up the value of theirs?

It's not unearned income until the money has come in to their posession. They don't have £2m, they have a house they live in, someone else might be prepared to pay £2m for it, but they don't get that £2m unless they move out and sell it.

It is taxed.
It's the capital gains tax. It exists already.

It is a most appalling and "counter Productive" Tax that will not do anything to reduce poverty "Any Money" raised from it will be burnt. I say any money because I don't think any money will be generated from this nonsense, first of all the admin costs for the system will be high. People will seek to have their houses revalued under the threshold E.T.C. The biggest thing though is it is liable to affect staff employed in "service". The people/families forced in to paying "Mansion Taxes" will cut the hours of their staff , Nanny's, Cooks, Gardeners, Cleaners (The Hard Working People) The type of people Labour say they are trying to help The truth is these hard working lowly paid staff will feel the brunt of such "stupid" and Lower Sixth Form Politics, that is typical of the nonsense coming out of the Labour party. They are a group of individuals who are not interested what's best for the country, but only in their own self interest.

This tax is designed with only one purpose, not to raise any money but to "excite" its hard core Left Wing Members.

It does not matter what areas or locations are more likely to be affected by this tax, it is a nonsense. This tax will not bring any benefit to the country or "poor" people just a smile to activists.

Cofee - capital gains tax isn't paid on your primary residence, there's an argument for extending it to include residential properties, but that's rather different to taxing money you might make, rather than money you have made .

Coffeeinbed you don't pay capital gains tax on the sale of your primary residence.

Right. Ignore me.

But still, all the "unearned income" is only on paper.
So the tax will be on something that does not even exist.

Yes absolutely. Outrageous to tax an unrealised gain. Will people get a rebate when prices fall?

Yes, what happens if you pay mansion tax for 10 years, then when you come to sell up find its only worth 1.5m. Do you get a rebate!

"Those leech like women who have never worked and live off their husbands earnings"

1. How many such women do you actually know because I don't know any who have never worked.Indeed most sahp do it on a temporary basis.I am a prime example having been was one for 5 years I now work full time.

2)Being a SAHM(which I'm guessing is the group you're aiming your kicking at)isn't leeching it's jointly raising kids in a way that suits individual families.

3)What on earth had any of it to do with this topic?I know you love to give out your anti sahp stance at every available opportunity but really your links are more than a little tenuous in this instance.

Oh fuck off, there is no tax on £2 million, the tax is on the excess above 2 million.

And in all fairness these houses should be worth more like 500k.

Hopefully a tax will help reduce that price.

Then you won't have to worry about paying tax on your millions of pounds.

And how many people have 2 million pound paintings?

Just fuck off.

The london property market is fucked up and insane, and prices need cutting right down.

LePetit I would recommend you 100 times. I'm not stalking you BTW. You just seem to think my way

Aga I recommend you too!

You would pay $30k on a $ 3 million apartment in Manhattan, per year.

in London only $1500.

our property market is massively fucked up, and anyone defending the status quo is a cunt.

I'm not defending the status quo. I think council tax should be re-rated which in London would make a massive difference - people in cheaper properties would probably pay less than they do now. And I think principal residences should be subject to CGT as other assets are - might break our ludicrous obsession with property and encourage people to invest in things that actually create jobs.

Trouble is it is a bit late now. The last government fucked up the housng market so badly to enrich the likes of Bliar and his chums, that things like CGT and mansion tax on millionaires are too little too late.

Current government are a bunch of cunts also of course.