Labour should increase inheritance tax to 50 per cent

[Tummyachey]

If they did this it would raise billions of pounds - while avoiding raising taxes on working people. Exemptions should be put in place to protect small businesses; I accept this would be complicated, but they need to try and make it work.
So much money could be raised and it would also encourage earlier wealth transfers which would stimulate the economy. In addition, it would help redistribute wealth thus reducing inequality.
There would be political backlash, of course, but they need to get the economy growing and should act now so that the results are visible in time for the next general election.

It is more constructive and relevant than the looting you are proposing.

The art of taxation, @Tummyachey , is the art of plucking the goose to get the most feathers with the least pecking and hissing. Attributed to a c16th French finance minister (Colbert IIRC).

We (DH and I, both edging 70, and verging on retirement) are considering exactly this decision. Financially and tax wise, we would definitely be better off selling everything in the UK and moving to say, Antigua. It's English speaking, and citizenship is available for an investment of $120k. There is no IHT and English common law. Provided we buy decent health insurance for us both, and choose a house with adequate water storage and solar panels/batteries, then there's a lovely sunny life to live while we last.

Or a European country with a retirement visa system: again, I'd be paying medical insurance premiums but in, say, Portugal I'd also only be paying tax on income at 10%. No IHT.

In reality, I don't like the Caribbean (apart from the beaches) and I don't want my DH to have his next health crisis (there will be one) in a country where I am not really fluent enough in the language to speak to the doctor. I can do so in French and in another year, I would hope to be able to do so in Gallego Spanish/Portuguese. In reality, I shall aim to arrange our estate in the best interests of our DC, including PETs for a house, and cross my fingers that nothing goes too badly wrong too soon.

If you are in receipt of a UK state pension your health care will be funded by the NHS in many countries - see the S1 scheme.

Maybe not in Antigua but certainly in Portugal.

@Rentitis until my Spanish gallego portuguese is very much more sophisticated and fluent than it is now, I don't think I am willing to risk a health crisis in a language I don't speak fluently. In English, I am capable of speaking to specialist cardiologists and consultants as a non-specialist but I would struggle to manage in Spanish. And I find the language quite straightforward. Confidence that you have understood exactly what has been said to you orally, and Spanish is one of the fastest-spoken languages, doesn't leave a lot of time to reply intelligently. I love the place, and I might go there to retire solo, just not with DH's health needs.

The redistribution of wealth is generally a socialist principle, and most social democracies have some kind of nod to this in their statutes. It's just about redressing the inevitable inequality which springs from capitalism and generational wealth-hoarding.

Sounds like communism to me..

Which other countries levy IHT on the primary residence?

F off! I already paid £80k on an inheritance that was just at the 325k threshold, as my father was rubbish with financial planning. Sold his house, went to live in his gfs, who died, they added the value of her property to his estate even though it went to her kids. Total rip off!

Intellectual capital is unequal though and consequently wealth generation also is.

Why have we engaged in so much poverty acquisition? We have imported poverty on a massive scale destroying the "hoarded" generational wealth of public assets.

A global welfare state reliant on a decreasing number of contributors doesn't work for anyone. Which is where we now are with this involuntary global "redressing".

Although Labour would have us pretend they fixed the foundations whatever they meant by that. Does anyone know?.

No need to feel sorry for my daughters. But it’s my husband I feel sorry for - what was the point of him leaving the house at 4am every morning, getting home after 10pm, slaving away and skipping holidays to gain extra qualifications for all those decades, if he can’t pass the majority of his earnings onto our daughters? He did it for them.

Our house only accounts for about a quarter of our estate. The rest is the product of extremely hard work in challenging but well-paid industries by both me and my husband.

(In reality, we’ll make sure our daughters get more than £1 million each, but we’re having to begin the process of transferring wealth to them much sooner than we’d planned).

I'm not sure. IHT has increased massively in terms of tax take over the years as the thresholds have not changed in line with property prices, and I don't believe it was ever intended to apply to someone passing on a single average-sized home, as it could now. 40% is already a big chunk of tax on a large estate.

There are other ways of tackling inequality without going for someone's main home. More tax on additional propertes and rental income, capped rent, building more affordable rent and shared ownership properties and security of tenure. Of course, governments are fearful of this crashing the housing market and then the economy as so much rests on property. Far too much.

The thing is that the average sized home has gone from something that people didn’t need to inherit to something people want to or need to have, it’s driving housing prices ( along with the lack of council/ social homes ) and that’s driving a lot of the crap in our economy - if house prices were back at 3 times a normal income people who don’t have inherited wealth would be a lot better off than they are

and the house price gain has never been taxed - if your parents bought for 100k and you sell it for 500k the government will have seen nothing for the additional 400k that they didn’t ever do anything for

erm…no

I came from a very poor working class family. I have worked hard to make a life for me and my family as has DH. I want my assets to go to my children, not to the state. Philosophically I want a smaller state with less spent on it and certainly I would not want to give it half my house when I die. I would be starting with significant reform of benefits payments.

This really. Hence the increasing scrap over inheritances that is seen on sites like this.

House price inflation is at the root of multiple evils in society.

Anyone that bought a house for 100k with a mortgage likely paid 250 to 300k for it over the life of the loan.

Unless it was funded by a totally untaxed under-v-generous-nil-rate-band inheritance windfall instead of course.

The description of not taking money from people as "very generous" is interesting.

Money belongs to the state unless they agree to let you keep it?

You also need to factor in inflation. £100 000 in 1990 was worth much more than £100 000 today - so selling the home today at say £400000 would not translate into a real terms gain of £300000.

I'm unlikely to inherit anything but it's still a no from me.

That is a very good point

You do realise that a lot of those who pay inheritance are 'working people'! Maybe you mean the non-working people who are happy to be kept by the rest of us.

Those of us old enough to remember the Labour of the 1960s are not at all surprised!

But someone renting a £100k has probably paid 250-300k over the decades and has nothing to show for it at the end! Meanwhile, the landlord has paid off their mortgage and is sitting on a house probably worth a few hundred thousand - all paid for by the tenant! If the landlord dies before selling, there'll be no capital gains tax. SO much is wrong with our capital taxes system, especially regarding houses.