AIBU to think a £2m homeowner should pay mansion tax?

[LadyJos]

Anyone read the Telegraph Article about the 93 year-old man paying mansion tax on his £2m Richmond Home he bought for £15,000? AIBU but isn't £15,000 to £2m a fairly good return over 60 years, and shouldn't he pay some tax at the end? I can't help thinking since the home is mortgage-free, he has options here to pay the £2500 a year...
‘I’m a 91-year-old veteran about to be dragged into mansion tax. This is wrong’
www.telegraph.co.uk/money/property/house-prices/91-year-old-about-dragged-into-mansion-tax/

Yes why not. Seems a good idea.

I'm genuinely asking, where should we raise money instead? It seems logical to go after those with accumulated wealth and assets, billionaires etc.

Owning a 2M house seems very wealthy to me. Not to you?

Inefficiency, waste, health tourism and misuse by thousands who are not entitled to NHS treatment.

Why is none dealing with that?

Amazon pay a lot of tax already. Wealth taxes cause capital flight

First we should look at spending. Means testing certain benefits, reinstating the two child benefit cap etc could all save a lot.

Secondly, we should look at taxes that have a chance of raising a decent amount of money if this is what we need. These are VAT and income tax. If it's funding services that we all use then we all need to pay more. Studies show that low and middle earners aren't paying as much tax as in other countries. High earners are paying more.

I'd rather us have a strong, low tax, fast growing economy

Cutting the levelling up projects would be incredibly short sighted. The idea is to invest in exactly those areas - like education and infrastructure - which will mean more tax can be levied from those areas in the future.

Why do you think we should just continue to let those impoverished places continue to suffer - and not mobilise funds from the wealthy and inactive?

Let's perhaps cut the over bloated welfare state?

We cannot levy more tax on low and middle earners. They are already struggling. We need to pay for an aging population - the very people living in this 2M house - and investing into poor areas in the UK that will improve their self-sufficiency in the long term.

Look at what the levelling up money is being spent on. I have and it's shocking. Not education or useful infrastructure but very questionable investments that stray into the commercial realm which we know the public sector has a terrible record with.

I am from one of those impoverished areas and it isn't being spent on things that would make a real difference.

You seem to have drunk the koolaid without looking into the detail. Chucking money at councils isn't going to raise living standards in the long term unless it's invested wisely.

You really hate older people?

We also pay for millions of people on welfare, why not
look there?

To make a country economically competitive, you need to invest in education and health. We also have many areas where technologically we could be world leaders - in tidal and wind and wave power. This could be funded from private sources - but they don't want to take the risk!

We have to invest public money now, to reap the benefits later. I want to live in a society where people from any background have access to great education and anyone has the healthcare they need. Being taxed is the cost of a peaceful, happy society.

If you'd rather see extreme poverty and suffering while you live in your 2M house and drive your SUV then go to the US or Dubai or India.

What bizarre posts.

All sound bites and hate.

If you want the kind of country you describe then you emigrate. The UK doesn't want the kind of tax and spend model you describe. Every poll shows this. There is a long way between being America or Dubai and being a country with a sensible welfare system. One that provides a safety net but all's incentivises growth and investment.

Tax reduces growth which in turn shrinks the pie and means we need to tax the same groups more and more to achieve less and less.

Some have worked - Manchester's Metrolink, Teeside Freeport, Hull's cultural improvements - no? I agree the railways have been a disaster and yes there has been tons of mismanagement. Totally agree with you there.

But investing more in education, wealth and social care now saves later. Investing into the life of a neglected child, helping them into school, employment etc and preventing them becoming an offender is much cheaper than waiting until they're fully a burden on the state.

Taxing income more and more is not levying enough. Yes, we need to go after those that hide their money in investments or offshore and find loopholes to avoid tax.

But we can raise taxes in many ways - and a 2M house is a fairly clear sign of wealth.

What I see in the UK is a growing disparity between rich and poor and crumbling services. I'd like to see investment in the things we're really good at - science and technology - especially green tech - and to improve our competitiveness in these areas.

I feel sad when I see poor, neglected areas, homelessness and despair, especially when there are others who could contribute more without it affecting their standards of living. Like this wealthy man living in his expensive house in Richmond.

Taxing and taxing the “broad shoulders” crew certainly achieves one thing: they spend less.

The “asset rich cash poor” people, not in mansions but probably to be clobbered with higher property taxes or lvt will not be in the garden centre, not in pubs, not in shops and taking fewer holidays. And no home improvements either.

You might not care about the taxed people, but if your livelihood depended on the economy you’d not be so keen on their having less money in their pockets.

Shall we start with the triple lock?

Yes

Stolen??

Well, the reaction to cutting the Winter Fuel Payment says it all. I don't think pensioner benefits are what most proponents of cutting welfare actually mean when they call for benefit cuts.

Plenty of logic to people objecting to the wealthiest living off the fat of the land.

That was because it was set too low and people on pension credits got more than those without. If it had been set at £20k or so in the first place it would probably have been ok and saved a lot of fuss

Not sure what the answer is. The current council tax figures don’t work. I’m not sure how workable this scheme is when you’re uprooting OAPs potentially from their areas - there’s never enough garden flats for demand (and yes some will be happy giving them up, most won’t). It will also hit the poorest in those areas who just happen to need to live in expensive areas, yes they won’t be renting a 2m house, they will be renting a 1 bed flat for the same cost as a 4 bed in other parts of the country. How do you make that fair? When all services still need paying.

£15k 60 years ago was a significant amount of money for buying a house. Average house prices were much lower, somewhere around £2k at the beginning the 1960s.

Stories like these are put out there deliberately by the likes of the Telegraph and designed to pull on heart strings. Aw, poor old man in his 90s being pulled into the mansion tax. The truth is that he has had money all his life and its about time people like him paid a bit more back.