What do you think of this idea of a wealth tax?

[LuluJakey1]

This is from The Guardian this afternoon. It is the third article I have seen in the Press two days promoting this idea.

www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/jul/06/arts-wealth-tax-rishi-sunak-nhs-public-services?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

Personally, I think it is bonkers. She seems to be suggesting that ALL wealth in this country - houses, savings, pensions, shares/paintings etc should be subjected to a one off tax of 10% to get us out of the financial mess.

DH and I would have to find about £80,000 cash! We'd have to sell the house?

Yes- Yes it is a good idea and you are BU to criticise it.
No- It is an awful idea and you are right to criticise it.

@QuestionableMouse well you could mortgage the 10% of your house or sell and downsize? How is that any worse than what will happen to families in homes with mortgages who will be taxed more and lose their homes if they can’t afford mortgage repayments on less pay? Honestly this HAS to be done fairly so we all
Contribute. You can’t sit in your inherited payed off home and feel it’s fair to watch others lose theirs through huge taxation on salaries and not contribute yorurself???

Its easier to tax the money at the point it comes in. Not at the 101 destinations it ends up at.

If gambling winnings were taxed then wouldn’t everyone just take up gambling and claim their losses against tax

10% of equity in the home how do you know how much equity people have unless they sell?

Well it’s not a flawless solution... but we could start by getting places valued and checking that against mortgages.

A better idea would be to tax on wealth which is based on the value of all of one's surplus wealth.

At a smaller rate of let's say 2.5%.

Taking any debts and bills due into consideration of course.

There are lots of sites such as Zoopla that estimate house value so we could use that as a starting point and give home owners the option of getting their house valued if they disagree. Plenty of houses are worth kore than they’re valued by Zoopla of course due to renovation work but at least it would be an easy place to start.

How many landlords are not even paying tax because it is all done under the counter so to speak.The Government need to up their game on that

@PontiacBandit

I always thought a luxury tax would be good, ie higher rate of VAT on luxury cars and yachts/ expensive paintings and wine / designer goods.

I don't agree with a tax on goods that already owned though.

This idea seemed to be popular in the comments section of The Guardian

[quote Raella50]@QuestionableMouse well you could mortgage the 10% of your house or sell and downsize? How is that any worse than what will happen to families in homes with mortgages who will be taxed more and lose their homes if they can’t afford mortgage repayments on less pay? Honestly this HAS to be done fairly so we all
Contribute. You can’t sit in your inherited payed off home and feel it’s fair to watch others lose theirs through huge taxation on salaries and not contribute yorurself???[/quote]
Why so judgemental?

I can't mortgage it - I can't get one because I'm currently on a zero hour contract because I'm a mature student. It's a two bed terraced house so short of moving to a flat there's not much I can do to downsize.

This house has been in my family for most of its history so I'm not going to do anything that would risk losing it.

Instead of going after the easy target, the government should force all those tax dodging companies to pay up.

My piddly £7k is nothing compared to the millions they could potentially contribute!

Raella50 Zoopla is a nonsense though. It's last price sold plus a percentage based on area. An identical house next door to us that had been repossessed was valued at 75% of the value of ours 8 years after the sale. It had more land.
You can put your own valuation in too.

There was also some support for the idea of a wealth tax excluding anyone's home and anything below £750,000 , including pension pot, so it would be second + homes, BTL and the very wealthy in that case.

We have worked really hard to pay down our mortgage over the years and I don't feel we should be 'fined' for doing that- which is how it feels. We have saved money that we could have spent thinking the DC might go to university and so we have a cushion. It seems like we might be penalised for doing so.

What about older people who bought a house years ago and it has now increased in value but they are cash poor? Is she suggesting they sell their house to raise the £50,000 or whatever they owe?

Zoopla totally overestimates where we live. It's about 20% above current prices.

It feels a bit like theft IMO

And who wouldn't be offering estate agents £50 to come in on the low side. I mean EA's have a reputation for probity but you never can tell.

The arts have long relied on contractors and zero hours contracts / free internships and this might be the shock it needs to reset. There should be a SGA type guild which everyone working in the arts contribute to (with top stars contributing the most) to help the most vulnerable. Almost like a union hardship fund.

I don't want my hard earned savings going to pay for the Arts. Sorry to sound like a philistine but I don't give a shit, I'm working class and my perception is the Arts are full of the middle classes.

Zoopla has our house down as having an extra bedroom and 2 extra receptions and 1 less bathroom.

I’m worried about this. We sold a flat last year and the money is sitting in the bank waiting for us to buy a house. If they come along and take 10% of our balance that’s 10% less deposit we can put down.

Taking 10% of everyone’s savings would be a pretty easy thing for them to do (Cyprus did it in 2013) and not fair at all.

We already pay tax on our earnings, pay rent to a landlord etc. It wouldn’t be fair at all to take 10% of our savings.

It’s an awful idea. Tax on income at different rates.

@QuestionableMouse Well banks would have to be forced to offer reasonable mortgages to people on positions such as yours. It has to be everyone contributing, those tax dodging companies of course must pay.

Well if was in The Guardian.....Enough said.

@LuluJakey1 why shouldn’t older people pay towards the debt the same as everyone?? Surely they could have some sort of serviced mortgage on 10% that’s payed by a nominal amount and payed off by selling the house after death?

I think just increase tax on earnings the old fashioned way. Its gonna be a big hike so it dont matter which way they do it youre gonna pay up one way or another.

Post WWII tax went up to over 90%, although it might not be that high, expect a big, big tax hike!

@DivineTruth of course tax will hike! Many people who own property and don’t have salaries jobs (pensioners in huge expensive houses; very wealthy heirs for example) Won’t pay anything towards the debt and younger people who are
More likely to be juggling young families, big mortgages, childcare costs etc are going to be the ones suffering. It’s a case of I’m alright, Jack from older generation basically.