What are the Tories thinking with insane £1,000,000 inheritance tax threshold proposal for family homes?

[Figmentofmyimagination]

It's almost as if they have completely lost their way.

What sort of incentive does a well-off person in their 50s or 60s have to work if they know their estate will be taxed into bits for their children?

Um, money? a high standard of living? nice holidays?

There are people who are shafted by inheritance tax, in my experience, well off people in their 50s and 60s tend to plan their estate making gifts to their children so that they can buy houses well before their parents pop their clogs.

Why don't you put more nurses\midwives onto wards 'sorry no money must decrease debt' . why are we shutting women's shelters? 'Sorry no money. Labours fault..' The list goes on.. BUT they can afford THIS!!!

I'm a floating voter and have voted Tory in the past but I think this has helped me make my decision. I can't in all conscience vote for a party so hellbent on increasing social boundaries in this country.

To repeat another poster I have no problem with being taxed to help those who need help with basic living, I would pay higher taxes to ensure better social care for the elderly or those with SN and disabilities, but I have a huge problem with the pot being used to reduce taxes for those who have just landed up to £1 million.

Not sour grapes at all. I live in a £900,000 house (thanks to London house prices, not particularly challenging work) and DH and I will inherit in excess of £1 million between us. How on earth can we be a government priority for paying less tax ?

There are people who are shafted by inheritance tax, BUT, in my experience,

Goodbye - I'll be voting for the 50% band to be restored. I'd happily (well. Not happily. But not furiously either) give up the pension tax relief if the money was used to reduce the hammering the needy and vulnerable are currently getting.

I think there is an argument for going higher than 50% at a higher income - say £0.5m - but I accept that there are arguments against that too.

I think inheritance tax is a vastly more sensible way of raising cash than increasing income tax etc as the person who accumulated the money is dead, not trying to save for a rainy day or deal with whatever life throws at them anymore.

Several people here who are arguing against it have said they will benefit from it. It's not simply a case of jealousy or thinking it should apply to people just a bit richer than them.

It's funny, on these threads you often get people saying that when the time comes they will willingly pay their inheritance tax etc etc.

What you never get, is someone who comes on and says 'yes, I inherited a large sum of money and I gladly made sure that every last penny of it that was owed to the state found its way there, and I get a warm fuzzy feeling every day knowing that I gave a massive sum to the coffers, which I could have otherwise invested to help my own family, even when technically I could have easily got round it'.

Because from what i have seen in real life, I think when it comes to the crunch, what one says and what one does are often entirely different. But maybe I just hang out with selfish bastards.

Well I agree that lots of people are hypocrites in this sort of area, yes. But the accusation was of jealousy - you're accusing people of hypocrisy!

As the inheritor you don't have the option to fiddle the tax do you?

Aldi - I have never inherited so much as a penny and never will but if I had, I would certainly have 'gladly made sure that every last penny that was owed to the state found its way there'. Of course I would.

Like Goodbye I would like to know what people think is a "fair" percentage for the "rich" to pay. a) in income tax +national insurance b) inheritance tax

then add mansion tax etc.

What do you think the total % tax take should be for higher earners and at what level of income should that kick in?

Just curious.

I inherited a good sized amount and the estate of the deceased, not me, paid the tax. As far as I was concerned, I got an inheritance for doing nothing!

Aldi - I have never inherited so much as a penny and never will but if I had, I would certainly have 'gladly made sure that every last penny that was owed to the state found its way there'. Of course I would.

Bonkers.

Goodbye - no, honest.

ok Aldi, i'm one of those. No efforts whatsoever are being made to avoid inheritance tax in our families. None. There has been no gifting, no trusts, no downsizing by our parents. Our main wish is that our parents will remain in their own homes until the day they die and spend their money ensuring they live comfortably. So 'When the time comes' the whole lot will be put in the hands of the solicitor.

Not everyone is living their life with one eye on the value of their parents' house and bank account.

I strongly think that high earners should be taxed more, in order to reduce cuts on the needy and vulnerable

But 'the rich' already pay huge amounts in tax, where do you draw the line? Like it or not, these people who appear to be so despised are the ones who contribute by far the most amount to the pot in terms of tax, wealth, job creation etc. and take out by far the least. We need them.

Keep on taxing them and eventually they will say 'fuck this' and they will take it all elsewhere. And then we really would be up the shit.

Not everyone is living their life with one eye on the value of their parents' house and bank account.

Who said anyone was?

Of course I'd like a cheque for £140,000K - doesn't mean I can't see that it is bribery and say no thanks.

Meanwhile, House prices have gone up and up since the Tories got into power and show no sign of stabilising, while the number of people needing state support to put a roof over their head has increased.

The net effect of this policy would just be more money pumped into the housing market, increasing social divisions without making anybody feel any richer - and all so that we can inherit our 'family homes' - My parent's house is lovely, they moved there when I was 8, but it isn't Winterfell and I haven't lived there for 20 years and both my brother and I have our own family homes.

If the Tories really cared they would do more to help vulnerable people who really are caught out by inheritance tax, or just vulnerable people in general, but apparently the Tories aren't interested in their votes.

Aldi - I am a high earner.

Not everyone is living their life with one eye on the value of their parents' house and bank account.

I'm talking about my own estate planning, actually.

I kind of agree in general Aldi but totally depart with you on inheritance tax. The person who generated that money, who paid all that tax, who contributed etc has gone, is no more.

All that contribution, wealth generation etc has nothing to do with the inheritors who simply get a windfall.

Merry - Winterfell was a bit of a shithole even before it was burned down. Sunspear, that's the place to be. Or possibly Highgarden. Braavos possibly the fairest place to live (a state run by bankers. Who'd've thunk it?)

Rightly or wrongly it is likely that the rich will continue to pay huge amounts in tax because taxation is, as much as anything, about practicality and there is no point in taxing somebody who doesn't have any money to tax.

It is generally assumed that dead people don't need much money.

Just two pence to pay the ferryman.

Yes, there was certainly no 'advising' coming from us to my MIL about what to do with her money, she decided herself that she wanted to avoid paying the tax i order that her kids and grandkids will get the most possible benefit. And when it comes to planning our estate, I imagine that we will do the same.

But Gently, it was their family home!