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.

Fleet Street Fox on Myleene's brilliance

Just think of this tax as a few more bands of council tax and you might feel better!

Was just looking at Fleet St Fox via Twitter. v.good. Particularly this:

It’s difficult to know the true figures before it’s introduced, especially as it might lead to houses intentionally being valued below the threshold.

Somewhere between 70,000 and 110,000 properties in the UK are worth more than £2m, but as we on average sell our houses once in 25 years it’s hard to be sure.

The super-rich may well be able to use trusts and legal avoidance measures. Grannies, incidentally, would be able to do the same if they can employ the right accountant.

However, if granny didn’t want, or couldn’t pay, £250 a month, she would be able to defer the payment until the house is sold after her death.

So granny needn’t move out or cough up – and anyone who inherits from her can still expect £325,000 (or £650,000 if grandpa’s allowance is included) tax-free.

If you want or need or demand more than £650,000 from your parents or grandparents, you have a major crack addiction and it’s time to seek help.

It really does alarm me that people in houses worth 2m or more feel poor and beleaguered.

Alas,very many of those making laws, appearing on tv and writing for the papers live in those £2m homes- along with some gormless celebrities and so somehow a really meagre and paultry attempt at getting the very wealthy to cough up is seen as some kind of evil crime!

Oops, paltry.

Agree Iggly -it really just amounts to a increase in council tax on these valuable properties, an increase that could be seen to be not only fair but long overdue.

For the majority in this country it is hard to feel sorry for anyone living £2million plus properties.

Saucyjack there simply aren't loads of overcrowded people - at least not in the areas with lots of underoccupiers. In the north people with a spare room outnumber the over crowded 3 to 1.

The bedroom tax will raise £320m
www.theguardian.com/society/2013/oct/14/bedroom-tax-ministers-likely-savings

That's three RAF planes or 0.2% of our spending on pensions. Pretty much nothing in government terms. It will cause misery and poverty for nearly half a million people (with a particular focus on the disabled).

Raising next to nothing with a huge social cost is nasty as is taking money from those least able to pay.

Not allowing for regional differences in housing supply is stupid.

If nothing else turning someone who voted for them last time into someone who'd never consider voting for them again in order to raise next to nothing is bad politics.

Iggly has the right thought on the mansion tax. Why shouldn't those with million pound houses be in a higher band?

Audeca "Bottled water is currently taxed at 20% VAT and water to commercial premises (like a TV studio) is also taxed at 20% VAT."
Not true if the purchaser, eg the TV studio, is Vat registered. They can claim back that 20%.

I'm using me as an example (I can't believe I'm unique in London) as others have said it won't be long before the tax limit lower's and the value increases.
I can't imagine it cooling the house prices, as it's not catching the investors who are pushing prices up

YY Damn, which is why we need taxes on seconds homes or investment properties, not primary residences.

I can't feel sorry for people who inherited houses, or bought houses years ago that are now worth millions. If some have to sell up maybe that will take some heat out of the market!

People who have the good fortune of large incomes get taxed more heavily than those that don't, why not those that have had big property gains land in their laps?

I do think there should be some attempt to index it to regional differences though, by recognising that a "mansion" costs more in some parts of the country than others.

Instead of introducing more taxes why don't they just cut the wasteful spending. The whole point of this mansion tax is to plug the NHS funding gap.

Mylene raised a good point - get to the bottom of why money is being wasted in the NHS. It was Labour that introduced the bloody PFI contracts and I know what an incredible waste of money they are as I used to work for a company that would try to win those contracts so fully understand the costs involved. Its disgusting how a simple cleaning job is being charged almost 3x the actual cost it would take if those services were managed in-house. And this also extends to our roads and schools as well.

I thought land lords get taxed on their income?
I did think perhaps the answer was to tax the amount the house increases from purchase to selling. E.g if it goes up 100k in your 5 year ownership you get taxed on that 100k.
But I don't know how you'd administer those that inherit

You can't force people to move areas by taxing them, people have lives, jobs, schools, employees, businesses, maybe even relatives that need caring for.

There is nowhere in the country where you couldn't sell your £2m home and buy something slightly more than adequate which was under the threshold without moving out of the area. Or defer the payments and pay it when you do decide to move.

Though it's not very well thought out and there must be more effective ways to tax the rich, I agree with fleet street fox in that it's not so terrible to hit someone who is either very rich, or has seen their house massively increase in value. The bedroom tax is much worse.

But yes the problem with ed seems to be he just can't think on his feet and engage with an argument. Everything he says sounds scripted by a committee and delivered a bit anxiously as if he's trying to remember the words. If he believes this is a good tax he could have engaged with her arguments and put her right ona lot of things. Why doesn't he do that? He never seems to apply his brain and it makes him come across as lacking personality and presence.

I'm really annoyed that he's so crap as I thought he was supposed to be pretty left wing which is what labour really, really needs now. There's an excess of old-fashioned, reactionary, poor-hating right wing shit around and labour shouldn't be pandering to it, they should be standing up to it heroically and passionately and being unashamedly socialist - there's a massive political gap where that should be. Why isn't there a labour person who will do that? It's baffling. Instead we get the musings of Russell brand. It's unnecessary - we have a left wing party. They just need an actual voice.