Inheritance tax to be halved

[WildWhippet]

The government intends on having the rate of inheritance tax in the autumn statement.

Is this a good move? Will it encourage you to vote for the Conservative Party?

I think they'd have more impact if they removed the VAT on tents.

No! Why on earth would it? Only 3.76% even pay it. I hope Hunt is honest enough to point that out when he's trumpeting this next week.

Makes little difference as very few pay IHT anyway and it's easily avoided.

It may bring in more revenue as if it's a smaller amount, people won't be quite so keen about paying thousands in solicitors fees to avoid it!

With it being a very high figure of 40% it concentrates the mind and people take steps to avoid it, even if they wouldn't have paid it anyway, as the rules are complicated and lots of people don't understand the exemptions etc.

It's an interesting one. It is the least popular tax amongst all voting demographics and parties - but it realistically only impacts a very small percentage of people. That said, the amount of people paying it has increased due to threshold freezes and the increase in house prices. A more sensible approach would have been to change the threshold. But that would not benefit the super rich.

Source for government intentions on IHT?

Because an item on the BBC News site today quotes Jeremy Hunt as saying that tax cuts are "virtually impossible".

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-67405495

@Chersfrozenface It’s on the front page of The Times.

Even in the article you shared, Hunt says there is £10b ‘headroom’ for tax cuts. The IHT change would be ~ £7b.

Good move. We are one of the higher IHT country’s in the developed world. 20% would still be high in comparison but is more reasonable. I see lots of threads on here about inheritance helping children and grandchildren get on the ladder or else they would not be able to, and rent forever or long term, so at least the money goes to the family of the people that earned it.

It will make very little difference to treasury revenues. It's an easy win among their core voter group. No real impact to the country's tax take.

But as part of my qualifications are in inheritance tax, I'm not thrilled on a personal level!

Because an item on the BBC News site today quotes Jeremy Hunt as saying that tax cuts are "virtually impossible".

There was also no "magic money tree" before the DUP were gifted £10 billion from nowhere.

IHT doesn't affect over 96% of the population, they may as well announce a cut on VAT for Rolex watches.

Not really - it's an awful unnecessary tax but fortunately easily avoided with a decent accountant.

It's been a very clever piece of Tory misinformation- making people believe that Inheritance Tax is a huge injustice that affects loads of people when it isn't and it doesn't.

You know what the biggest injustice is ?

Us paying fucking trillions in tax and getting worse and worse services in return.

I pay my taxes to support the NHS and those that are unable to support themselves and to educate our children in a safe and nurturing environment.

I don't pay them so some Tory chums can divvy it out while quaffing champagne and ordering quails eggs on toast in a foreign country where they have squirreled their obscene profits.

It's Dharshinl David, the reporter, who says there may be headroom

The section headed "There is likely to be some headroom" begins "As Jeremy Hunt says higher interest rates have been deployed by the Bank of England to fight the recent stubborn bout of inflation."

Hunt is quoted there as referring to interest rates, not tax cuts.

It won't change my voting intentions, but it's one of those taxes that has far higher political clout than its direct effects would suggest.

Many more 'working class' voters will be swayed by reductions in higher rate income tax and inheritance tax than you might expect. Partly this is because many that identify as white working class are much better paid than you'd normally associate with working class, are accumulating future inheritances through the dual British obsessions of home ownership and the property price bubble, and because of the Optimistic Aspiration Effect - best summed up by Delboy as, "This time next year we'll be millionaires".

Will it encourage you to vote for the Conservative Party?

No

How is it avoided? I thought it was pretty iron clad.

With the ceasefire vote and how pissed people are pissed with Starmer, it's starting to get interesting. I thought it was on the bag for Labour...

Thank goodness. I have been a lifelong socialist voter but I will definitely switch my vote after this. Especially if they go on to fix the little things as well, like schools, hospitals, water, power, farming, poverty, transport...

They promised that 10 years ago and never did it so no

You can inherit up to 1m without paying tax which is a decent amount imo & then you can still mitigate to avoid tax on amounts above that.

It hardly impacts anyone but people will love this proposal I think.

The threshold for my mother’s estate was £1 million. It’s a lot higher than people think.

This has been trotted out before every budget/autumn statement for the last 5?? years, I really doubt it will happen now.

They can shove it up their arse, imo.

In a country where there is so much to fix, fannying about with this is a waste of time and money.

Unless, of course, the intention is to sway favour with some very rich and influencial people so that your party continues to be bolstered by financial power through an election year that is going to be tough, at best. The kind of election where party donations are going to really matter. The kind where you need nicer headlines and the money to create them.

They don't need you to switch though, they just need everyone who used to vote for them to vote for them. And more people think they are going to pay IHT than actually do pay IHT which, combined with the perception that it's an unfair tax (I disagree with that view, but it's not relevant to my point...) means it could have an impact on those that are, rightly, currently not voting tory but usually do.

I think though that in terms of their core vote they'd be better adressing the iniquitous 60% tax rate for those on >£100k and < £125k, raising the 20/40/45% thresholds, while aslo increasing the 45% rate to 50%. Someone with more time could work out what the levels / top rate would need to be, but how hard can it be

It's a pretty high threshold as it stands and with sensible planning, it can be mitigated to varying degrees.

I'd much rather a cut on stamp duty.