To think scrapping inheritance tax would not be popular with voters

[Lanadelday]

I'd say I can't believe the conservatives are considering it, but nothing surprises me any more that they do. But AIBU to think most people wouldn't back this anyway- I can't see it being a big vote winner and don't think they really get that voters are sick of all the inequality and so many people including kids and elderly, living in poverty, not wanting to make it worse.

I'd rather not pay more income tax tbh!

The money has already been taxed.

It hasn't, my in-laws house was 50k now it's worth 1.8m plus.

I would be more than happy to pay income tax if we all had the same tax rate. Then you pay more if you earn more, but it's fair. We all have the exact same access to healthy, education, we should all contribute equally.

Taxing properties that have already been taxed? Ridiculous.

What's next? Taxing people who benefited from social housing and lower rent, because of the unfair advantage it gives them?

I would benefit from changes to IHT rules from
my parents & inlaws. However I think it's ridiculous that 40% income tax kicks in at 52k. Accounting for inflation 52k today is approx 30k in the early 00s!

Lanadelday do you have any concept of the inheritance tax treasholds. Just owning a property can tip you over. I have a single elderly aunt whose worked all her life and big chunk of her estate will go the the taxman. She will overjoyed if she gets to give it to her great nices and nephews instead.

and? She has benefitted from massive house price infltion. If your aunt got a massive bonus at work or a huge pay increase would you think she shouldn't pay any more tax?

Most people have worked all their lives - people with houses that are worth a lot of money are not some kind of special extra hard worker.

LUCK?
How is saving for a deposit and paying fees, mortgage, maintenance is considered LUCK? How is delaying having a family lucky?

Of course for many it's luck. My colleague just inherited 500k because her parents bought a council flat cheap yrs ago.
My parents bought in a crappy part of London that has massively gentrified. Someone who bought elsewhere & hasn't seen huge gains didn't do anything wrong.
I'm only on the London housing ladder because of a 6 fig gift from family.

But trying to go all communist on "home owners" is just wrong, and unfair.

paying tax on over £1 million unearned wealth = communist?

Indeed. My friends have just been able to upgrade from a flat to a house in London because her husband inherited £200k from his grandad - lots of hard work involved there obviously. 🙄

@Ap24 In your example earlier this afternoon about investing £20k in a S&S ISA and leaving it for 35 years to accrue... it would still form part of your estate for tax purposes. However, if you were to make the same investment via a self-invested personal pension, the SIPP would be outside your estate and therefore not subject to IHT. Plus the original investment would qualify for tax relief at your highest marginal rate, as would any other money you put into your pension in the years in between -- as the law currently stands.

However, I lean to the view that assuming the main asset inherited is the family home and it's left to the children or grandchildren, then £1m is a reasonable threshold for tax to kick in at 40%: the heirs will still keep 60% of anything north of £1m.

Well done them for putting their taxed earnings into an increasing asset and reaping the reward.

"unearned"? you want to go that way.

Let's talk about "benefits" then shall we 😂. If you want to penalise anyone who got anything "unearned"

And again, the really wealthy people use accountancy loopholes to make sure it doesn't apply to them. You are targeting the wrong people.

@Verv it was luck, they just bought what they could afford. 🤷🏻‍♀️

The grandad did. Pretty normal to pass on things to your family.

The tories are going to lose so they can say whatever they want.
This is really desperate stuff though.

Why don't we treat inheritance as income? And just tax it that way?

Rich people don’t pay Ht. it hits SE middle class voters. My parents grew up on a council estate. But built their home . They were not rich. I can’t see why hey should pay HT just because they live on the SE and took risks. I’m not interested in their £ but I want fairness.

and you think things will be different with labour? Have you looked at their own family wealth and own interest? Good luck ,you will have a few surprises😂

Why don't we treat inheritance as income?
because it's already been taxed . 🙄

You want young people allowance to be taxed as income too? University fees paid by parents to be taxed as income?

quite.

Maybe we should reform the inheritance rules for the rich people, the likes of King Charles, or the Duke of Westminster before attacking people simply because they have a tiny bit more than you have.

My house has gone up 50k in the last couple of years since I bought it.

My "work" involved sitting on my arse in front of the TV while it appreciated in value.

My house doing that has done precisely zero for the country. It hasn't caused any increase in productivity. It hasn't generated any economic activity. It hasn't improved services, or improved anyone's life (in fact probably the opposite). In short the "wealth" that it has generated isn't useful or even real.

A lot of people who own expensive properties think they got there by being intelligent or clever, rather than just being lucky.

The idea that it was just luck of them buying at the right time, and living in a period where the government was determined to prevent house price falls at all costs and winning the interest rate lottery doesn't go down particularly well.

When you start rewarding luck (house price increases/speculation and inheritances) over productivity (hard work and creativity) in an economy you are on the road to ruin. Speculative bubbles can power an economy upwards for some time, but at some point there will be a crash. Expecting the productive to subsidise the lucky never ends well, because it fails to encourage hard work and innovation.

It's likely that in an environment where you can't better yourself by virtue of luck (because you are priced out of a market by other people who have inherited or undergone huge speculative gains) then people will take their productivity and innovation elsewhere. That will have a devastating impact on the economy. it's basically going back to a feudal existence, where the wealth/land stays in the pockets of the few that were fortunate enough to inherit it and pass it on to their children.

It polls really well unfortunately.

I cannot get why it bothers people TBH. I would rather an allowance each person could receive untaxed, then more IHT than income tax. Particularly with sky high asset prices.

Seems entirely logical to me that it’s better to take tax from lucky inheritance than actual productive work. Or increase CGT closer in line with income tax.

Nevertheless they did buy it, and they budgeted it for it, and they paid for it.
If you plant and nurture a seed it's not particularly surprising to grow a tree that bears fruit.
It's a simplified but similar concept to someone coming along and demanding that if you give the fruit to your family then you must also give 30% of your crop to support those who are tree-free.

Call me selfish but my attitude is still, get your sticky mittens off my tree.

Whereas my attitude is DH & I will already get to
inherit loads. It just perpetuates inequality & my dc would benefit from a more equal society.

Or, as it happens when you try to penalise people, they cleverly use tax heaven and financial loophole, they relocate, they invest elsewhere to protect their family and their assets.

@Asiatoyork same!