Tories plan to scrap inheritance tax for estates up to £1m is to cost £3.3bn!!!

[PSCMUM]

please tell me, fellow mumsnetters, that you see how awful this would be for public services???! PLease tell me you are less self preservationist than the 2 (pinstriped) aresholes on the tube with me today saying how great it would be as they would get so much more of the value of their parents houses when they died!
I bloody can't stand tories, but this policy is worrying me as it is so appealing as long as you don't consider how they are affording to make such a humungous tax cut - ie, cutting public services. Doctors pay, nurses pay, schools, hospitals, fire engines, lolly pop people, income support, legal aid, free wine for deranged left wingers on mumsnet (ooops, maybe last one just wishful thinking)

[Bluestocking]

I can see how awful it would be very clearly, but I can guarantee that a lot of greedy bastards are going to be absolutely delighted.

[SenoraPostrophe]

I agree - I think inheritance tax is perfectly fair (although they should possibly allow you to defer the tax if you want to live in the house). there is a 350k threshold after all, and 350k is a lot.

[PSCMUM]

i know! this is so alarming. I cannot bear the thought of a tory gvt for my children to grow up under.

[SenoraPostrophe]

(this thread will kick off though you know)

[Bluestocking]

[PSCMUM]

i love minstrels. love SHARING for the greater public good. Minstrels v important part of socialism.

[Bluestocking]

[harpsichordcarrier]

don't worry PSCMUM not much chance of a Tory govt quite just yet .
I think the abolition of IHT is just a terrible idea, totally without any sort of fairness or morality behind it. How about raising the minumum wage, how about increasing mat leave, how about improving the health service rather than benefitting those who have just inherited large sums through no effort of their own.

[Kewcumber]

£350,000 is a nice two bed flat where I live - hardly the greedy rich leaving their ill-gotten gains to their children

And its half what we contribute to the EU every year.

Haven;t seen the figures so I'm not expressing a view one way or the other (yet) but it seems entirely fair that everyone should be able to leave say the house they lived in and oaid for to their children wihtout being taxed on it - up to a reasonable sized house.

[Kewcumber]

they are not abolishing it they are raising the thresh-hold level.

[Earlybird]

350k is not alot if you own even a small property in the SE.

[PSCMUM]

woo hoo!!
love mumsnet.
i hope you are right re no Tory gvt just yet!

[Kewcumber]

and I haven;t inherited a bean all paid for from my own sweat and tears. If I can;t leave it to anyone wihtout half going in tax perhaps I will give it away during my lifetime then espect the state to support me in my old age.

I'm sure you will think that your DC's working to support me when they are older becuase I didn't save or invest in my house is MUCh fairer

[Kewcumber]

and startlingly I'm not a Tory supporter - just think your utopian views are a little two dimensional.

[Bluestocking]

KC, when you are too infirm to live on your own any more, how about selling your house so that you can spend the money on your care?

[harpsichordcarrier]

that's not how IHT works.
they are raising the threshold.
of course it will cost money.
anyone who doesn't think that £350k is a lot of money is living in an entirely different universe to me tbh.
of course it is a lot of money

[Bluestocking]

And interestingly, fact fans, £350K is exactly the same amount of money (ie one fuck of a lot) whether you live in the Home Counties or in the Orkneys.

[Earlybird]

harpsi - I live in the universe called London.

[Kewcumber]

but its all relative - £350k will buy you a nice house in Wales and a small flat in London. IHT was never intended to hit the majority of people it was a tax on the rich. It no longer is.

No won't bother selling my house to pay for care, will sell it when I retire and live handsomly onthe proceeds so I can benefit form the hard work I did all my life then when I am inform and its all gone, the state can provide like it did for others all the rest of their lives.

eems fair doesn't it? Afteral I probably won;t need care very long.

[edam]

It would be a huge transfer of money from the poor to the well-off. Clearly the middle and upper classes would benefit hugely. But it just reinforces inequality. The children of well-off people get wealthier* and the tax break is taken from the rest.

I'd rather they cut VAT (although there are limits due to EU harmonisation I gather) or council tax - indirect taxes such as these are very unfair to below-average earners and resented by average earners.

Very few people out of the whole population are affected by inheritance tax, anyway. It gets more attention than is justified, because it has a greater impact on the South East, the middle classes, politicians and newspaper editors.

• This is not sour grapes, if dh's mother stays out of an old folk's home we'd probably have to pay it

[PSCMUM]

where i live too £350k is a nice 2 bed flat. but that is not the point. The principle of IHT is that the rich cannot just keep getting richer and richer, meaning that the richest people have nore and more family money with which to put down massive deposits on houses and price others on reasonable thou not stonking incomes totally out of the ball park in terms of house prices.

And far more importantly, we, as a bunch of human beings, should look after each other. If you have inherited loads from a dead relative, and actually £350k is a huge amount of money to drop into your lap whether it is to enable you to buy a 2 bed flat (london) or a mansion (scunthorpe, it is absolutely right that you share some of that with those less fortunate than yourself...those who need a minimum wage, a decent state pension, a hospital, a social worker, some maternity pay, a lesson on how to breastfeed, a decent school for their childrem etc etc etc...Withough anyone paying IHT all the way up to £1m estate, the rich will get richer and richer and richer and the poor would get totally left behind. THat is intrinsically unfair and I could not stand it if we became a nation that wanted to aspire to that and thought it was ok. It is not ok. IT is just sheer greed.

[Bluestocking]

Sorry, KC, not sure I am following you. If you plan to sell your house when you retire, IHT will not affect you (although possibly capital gains tax will) so what exactly is your point?

[ItsGrimUpNorth]

But in terms of the average house price in the U.K. which currently stands @ £210k, £350k isn't that much, is it?

I'm no Tory (god forbid), but I do think the inheritance tax level needs to be reviewed esp since house prices have risen so much. Maybe the level should be raised to £450k?

[milliways]

The thresholds are sooo outdated at the moment.

You pay tax on your earnings/savings/anything you buy/put in your car etc etc. Seems a bit unfair it is all taxed when you die as well.

My parents, who only own a 3 bed semi & not much else have just spent almost £2K Re-doing wills, Changing house from sole to joint ownership, Powers of Attorney etc, and solicitor says if they died now the IHT would be reduced by £52K!!

& I DON'T feel we have robbed the government!

[harpsichordcarrier]

ok so hold on, you think that the best way to spend our limited resrouces is to give tax relief to someone inheriting £999,999??that someone inheriting £1m should pay no tax whatsoever?
eek, really?