To think all the targeted pensioner benefits ie bus pass, TV and winter fuel should be abolished...

[Figmentofmyimagination]

.... And the equivalent amount added to the pension credit of low income pensioners. That would overcome the logistical/cost based arguments against means testing these benefits.

Go then. This country has too many pensioners as it is - it would free up housing stock and free up NHS time and space. For people who aren't pensioners - you seem very confident you'd be able to work abroad. but have you actually tired it? You might be in for a rude shock...

We have both worked abroad. What sort of problems do you think we'd encounter?

If you've already worked abroad, then probably none. But many people who sound off (dramatically) about leaving have no idea what working abroad actually entails (I have worked abroad). You should go, if that's what you want to do.

I'd tax them as income.

No, I don't want to leave - I love the UK. But if they tried to tax inheritance at 100% we would absolutely, positively leave.

The teen in question would presumably not have exhausted their nil band. It's still not fair, of course - but it's fairer than now. Even if people gave away practically everything, if its substantial the tax would start to rack up, and that would be preferable to getting 325k free (or 650k in the case of married couples). A policy such as this would encourage older people to divest their assets sensibly rather than - as pointed out above, hoarding them.

Goodbye - so you'd absolutely positively leave if the system became fair and stopped entrenching privilege? Go then.

Don't let the door hit your arse on the way out then.

Well, this has moved on quite fast !

100% Inheritance tax is laughable. I really don't understand the obsession some people have over other people's money.

If my parents leave me an inheritance, I won't have worked for it BUT they would have (and paid tax for it !) and decided that they want me to have it. Why should they work hard so they can leave all they have to the state when they've already paid their dues

I say inheritance tax should be 0%. Get your hands out of people's pockets and go work for yourselves !

Stupid ideas like 100% inheritance tax are only suggested by those who will never inherit any money or have no money to leave.

Charities would collapse if no one could leave money - idiot idea!

I say inheritance tax should be 0%. Get your hands out of people's pockets and go work for yourselves !

Oh, the irony

Howcanitbe I'm a high income earner (although not in the mega bucks bracket - I pay a shit load of tax but I don't own the means of production so I'll never be rich - I'm employed so it could all go tits up tomorrow). I worked overseas when I was younger for a while (in New York) but wouldn't do that now I have kids. IME the people who get all het up about IHT are people who aren't high earners themselves and never will be but who hope to inherit a nice wodge - threaten that, and suggest that they won't ever achieve that to which they aspire (because they won't get there on their own efforts) and see them froth! Of my colleagues, the really mega bucks earners don't care about IHT and expect their kids to work for a living (and expect them to do as well as or better than their parents as a point of...honour?). The ones who aren't at that level and won't be are looking forward to inheriting money (and in many cases have pre-spent it). I don't know anyone who is exercised about what they will leave, I know a lot of people who are obsessed with what they might get.

Gently, I get far more worked up thinking about what happens to our money (my husband's and mine) after I die than my in-laws' or parents'.

so you'd absolutely positively leave if the system became fair and stopped entrenching privilege? Go then.

This is your interpretation. Mine is more along the lines of, "if the state decides to take more than 60% of my already taxed assets when I die, I'll go to another state that won't."

I accept your position that inheritance perpetuates privilege. I believe that this is trumped by anyone's right to work hard in this lifetime to leave something behind for their children.

RandomNPC where is the irony? Money inherited is a gift . Should people not accept generous gifts from their family in fear of upsetting those who won't receive similar sized gifts?
Wanting money that someone else has worked for - and they don't want to give to you - is grabby imo. If they wanted to give it to the state they would, if not - don't be so grabby and just accept that others are more fortunate (hard work or luck) .

Don't let the door hit your arse on the way out then.

Well, that's pretty silly. I wasn't suggesting that you'd miss me, was I?

If people worked for themselves, they wouldn't need an inheritance would they? It's how wealth and privilege is passed on in our society. It's how the same inbreds have owned huge swathes of this country for a thousand years, passed from generation to generation.
And don't give me the 'hard work' shit. Many people work very hard throughout their life, without the luck to accumulate large sums of money, but their children are immediately at a disadvantage. Inherited money should be taxed heavily.

Goodbye, your sort always threaten to leave the country over tax. It's the usual cry of the rich and spoilt.
Never happens though does it?

I don't think anyone has a right to perpetuate privilege through inheritance. Your kids will already be privileged enough by growing up with educated successful parents in an affluent household. And you want to privilege them even more? So that they will be in a much better position financially than people who have worked harder than them, achieved more than them? That's outrageously selfish.

Actually though the point about charities was well made, all charitable bequests should be free of IHT. So long as they are bequeathed without restriction (other than being used to directly further the objectives of the charity).

Exactly Random - the irony! :o

Reallytired as far as I know, unless their position changes, I would inherit 1/4 of the value of my parent's relatively valuable house, as would my DH his parents' and I suggested it :o I also said only gifts to registered charities shouldn't be taxed. If it would reduce (not remove as educational inequality and contacts etc. Remain) entrenched privilege handed down the generations I'd vote for it. Not everyone only looks as far as the end of their own nose

Random - and they always parrot something along the lines of 'think of the children' too - but always have living older relatives. Though they claim not to be interested in their own inheritance except insofar as it will benefit their kids...

bereal, your arguments might go down a storm with the chinless wonders at your uni Young Libertarian soc, but we're trying to run a decent society here.

Gently - I think you're talking to the wrong age bracket.

I know lots of people who are concerned about IHT. Not because they have megabucks, but because the value of their house will put them over the limit so all their (limited) savings will be taxed at 40%.

If you're single and living even on the outskirts of London, your property can easily be worth over the threshold.

Since when have savings been regarded as 'hoarding'? I'd be glad to pass mine on to my dcs now, if it weren't for the fact I might need them to pay for care. And the interest used to pay for house insurance or minor repairs.

I suppose the alternative might be to sell up, live on a cruise ship and then the government will have to pay for my care when I need it?

But it'll never happen. Osborne promised to raise the threshold to £1 million at a Tory conference when they were in opposition. It was never designed to hit ordinary home owners with modest savings.