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, tax avoidance/evasion is truly immoral.

But he has been taxed all his life?

And you want more and more.

Yanbu at all

You are taxed on holidays. We all are. We are all taxed over and over again, so I don’t understand why it seems like such an issue when it involves pensioners?
Do you get this annoyed by VAT for instance?

‘When my daughter celebrated her wedding in the back garden of our Richmond house, the apple tree in its centre was small enough to fit inside the marquee…’
Doesn’t sound like a bog standard semi to me!

Preach.

The cheek of him!

Imagine having an
apple tree in your garden. Literal violence against the redistribution police .

I wasn't talking about the VAT, which we all pay, with income we have already been taxed on anyway.

I was talking about ADDING another "holiday tax", because why not.

The issue is that not only it's grossly unfair and disgusting to add more and more tax out of nowhere to the ones already existing! He HAS paid tax all his life.

A 91 year old pension, suddenly being penalised by the rules change around his home and someone decide to charge him another set of tax? It's outrageous.

It’s ridiculous that posters are trying to pretend this is just a poor working class done boy made good buying a shabby old terrace in New Cross 30 years ago and suddenly finding its worth £2m.

those people exist- in very tiny numbers- but he isn’t one of them. He’s rich- he just happens to be 90, which is literally the only thing he has going for his sob story

To have a garden big enough to host a marquee style wedding in that area, your house would be worth a lot more than £2m…!

What does his age have to do with it? At what age do you think we should stop implementing policies that might affect people? I have paid tax all my life too, should the government now stop bothering me as well?

Are those taxes proportionate?

I think a lot of people would disagree.

You can spend £100k stamp duty on a fairly
ordinary looking house in London now. Many people are paying rates via PAYE of up to 62%.

It’s incentivising negative behaviours, and new taxes may do the same. The same group are asked for more again and again.

I dunno, could be this average house- the first on Rightmove

www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/91352679

He's a healthy enough 93-year-old to sell his sob story to that Tory rag.

What's not fair, is not someone who can perfectly well afford 2.5 k a year; it's the criminal underfunding of public services all over the UK.

There to be multiple ways to raise funds, and this is one of them.

That’s in Ham, not Richmond.

But a good example of how underwhelming a ‘mansion’ is in outer West London…!

It may look fairly ordinary but it’s been priced according to the market. Just like everything else. So it needs to be taxed according to its purchase price.

And I love the PAYE nonsense. NOBODY is paying rates via PAYE of up to 62%. You know that phrasing is the way you have is incorrect, you are doing it for effect. Earnings are taxed according to thresholds, as you well know.

What negative behaviours are proportional taxes incentivising?

No not an underwhelming mansion. An AVERAGE HOUSE remember?

Why does it need to be taxed more based on its purchase price though? I don’t think that’s something people are in agreement with (as we can see here).

If the local market dictates this is the price of an ordinary house… why do the people in that area need to pay additional tax to live at the same standard as someone anywhere else in Britain?

Lots of people are paying tax at rates of up
to 62% via PAYE - that’s how our tax system works. Over £100k you lose £1of personal allowance for every £2 earned, which creates a 62% rate on this income.

Negative behaviours eg people working part time or using salary sacrifice to avoid cliff edges at £100k

I'm not saying I would like it - but I would be surprised if I could make a gain from £15,000 to £2m on anything in a tax-paying country and not pay tax on it?

It’s a very average looking house isn’t it.

In most of the UK this kind of house would be perfectly achievable to buy by people with an ok income, utterly unremarkable.

It’s taxed on death.

It's not about what someone originally paid for the house, it's about the value of the asset they hold today. We already tax property based on value through council tax (albeit using outdated valuations), business rates and inheritance tax. A mansion tax simply extends the principle that those with exceptionally valuable property should contribute more.

The comparison with PAYE isn't really relevant. Income tax and wealth taxes serve different purposes. I agree the effective 62% marginal rate around £100k is a poorly designed cliff edge that should be reformed, but that doesn't mean substantial housing wealth should never be taxed. Those are separate issues.
And for people who are genuinely asset-rich but cash-poor, such as someone who's lived in the same home for 60 years, the obvious solution is to allow the tax to be deferred until the property is sold or the estate is settled. That avoids forcing anyone out of their home while still recognising that a multi-million-pound property represents significant wealth.

I was replying to someone asking about the "pensioner"

surely it illustrates why it's unfair.

I have paid tax all my life too, should the government now stop bothering me as well? well, yes, why should you suddenly be given a big tax bill when you ALREADY pay tax?

Because the local economy, job opportunities etc. impact house prices. If you don’t want to pay those prices then don’t live there. I don’t want to pay London prices so I don’t live in London, knowing full well that decision impacts my earning potential.

And saying “some people are paying 62% PAYE tax” is wrong. I know posters on MN love to use that for effect because it makes it sound like a person’s entire wage is liable for 62% tax. Semantics are important, and nobody in this country is paying 62% tax on their earnings. People earning above a threshold pay 62% on earnings above that threshold. I know dramatic effect is important on MN but it can go too far.

And “cliff edge”? Really? A cliff edge?

You know changes in rates of tax happen all the time? At what age should the government stop making these changes? For citizens who are 20? 30? 70? When?