Andy Burnham should put the damn social care tax on landlords and big occupational pensions

[CurdinHenry]

Why is it always workers who pay

I think a 10% flat charge is an excellent idea. My parents have done a lot to ensure minimal IHT will be paid because they don’t want to see so much go in tax, when they think I will spend it better than the government (!) so basically because the tax is high, the govt will get either nothing or very little (because it’s all been handed over to me).
If the tax was 10% we wouldn’t have done anything to avoid paying it so the govt would have got around 200,000 from us instead.

My parents paid privately for me to have my tonsils out in the 60s, because of the waiting list on the NHS, when I was off school two weeks out of three with constant tonsillitis and ear infections. It wasn’t that they could easily afford it either!

The only thing I’m not sure about is how you would split it in marriages. My parents held everything jointly so I guess it would just hold over until my mum died? Or a value would be attributed when dad died and then a new value when mum died and then you add them up?

That is correct.

I think that seems like a very fair way of doing things then. I’m sure some people would find loopholes (giving money away) but 10% is a level that’s low enough that most people would think it were fair.
I would happily give 20% of my parents joint estate to ensure that all people can receive good care.

So good somebody said it - I genuinely think some things should not be private, and I am a 100% supporter of capitalism. Like vital healthcare (not appearance enhancements, unless their need is necessitated by traumatic accidents), Railways infrastructure, Ports infrastructure, and Water and Energy companies, they should be run, paying their staff fabulous wages, with the rest re-invested into the infrastructure. Carehomes should only be state-run. Rich people, obviously, if they want, care hire staff to look after them in their own homes. I say that because when a student, I was renting a bedsit from a truly heartless landlady, who bought a care home as an investment. I am not going to say what she was saying, because it is too distressing, but it was along the lines of 'they don't need much food, half a sandwich at lunchtime that is all they can manage'. She was truly vile and another tenant told me about not not always calling an ambulance for a septic resident, because 'which old dears are on her way out anyway'. This, more than half-a-sandwich, totally stunned me - when a private owner, illiterate, uneducated, without an ounce of humanity, decides who is on the way out or not and does not call an ambulance. Also, the whole concept is 'rip off the maximum amount for care' and 'give as little care as possible' - wrong, wrong, wrong.

My big occupational pension scheme is in crisis. You can find someone to blame for that but blame won't make our pension scheme suddenly richer. You could make me poorer as a pensioner I guess. Good thing I plan to keep working until age 75, anyway.

I'm all for an Estate tax to cover social care, or the 1p that LibDems proposed 30 yrs ago, or the Dementia Tax, making winter fuel allowance means tested, freezing tax thresholds & creating fiscal drag, older people in large homes being gently prised out into smaller more suitable properties: any of that, I have supported them all.

I don't know if a wealth tax is workable, though.
The private rental market provides valuable service, so not sure about taxing them extra. When I was married, we looked into BTL and couldn't see how to make it profitable without betting on property price rises which I disliked as a personal finance strategy.

Scrap the personal allowance in full and then anyone with any annual income pays. Seems fair.

I've said that on here many times. Have a starting income tax rate of 10% and then increase it in bands to 20/30/40%.

Gordon Brown (for once!) had the right idea when he introduced his 10% starting rate, but for some unfathomable reason, he scrapped it a couple of years later. It was a good thing!

If you tax the landlords more they’ll raise rents. Much like what has happened in recent years when everyone called for them to be taxed more. Go after those who are renting out property without declaring it.

@PinkFruitbat sure, if we start taxing benefits income too

AlI care homes should be council owned and run not for profit.

It would help if HMRC collected the tens of billions of tax lost in the black economy including VAT evasion, "cash in hand" jobs, counterfeit cigarettes and alcohol, money laundering, modern slavery, fake self employment, landlords not declaring rental income nor capital gains, etc. It's a disgrace that for anyone who isn't properly employed by a reputable employer has effectively the "option" whether to pay all their tax or not by simply not declaring everything on their tax return (or not even completing a tax return).

I favour just not giving out the benefits in the first place.

This. £3.5k a week for both my parents. There is no way their care costs that when care workers are on a measly £12-14 per hour. I've not seen a detailed breakdown of how all this money is spent. No doubt a huge chunk will be on utilities fair enough and insurances but still, daylight robbery. Especially when you know that the council have negotiated a cheaper rate for the people they are having to pay for, leaving the total self-funders like my parents subsidising them. And before someone whines about rich boomers they only have a £240k flat to be sold which will all go to the care home.

Why?