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Original poster

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

289 replies

PSCMUM · 01/10/2007 19:42

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)

OP posts:
Original poster
PSCMUM · 01/10/2007 20:49

oo shredies - i coudlnt' have put it better myself!

delight that my home is worth £500k.

devesatation that my children won't get the FULL £500k .;

diddums.

right have GOT to do washing up now.

OP posts:
Original poster
PSCMUM · 01/10/2007 20:51

QUeen of Quotes it is not

War v IHT

That is just ridiculous.

YEs the war is really bad, awful, terrible.

So? the 2 are not linked.

Its not like if they don't raise the IHT threshold they are going to spend another £7bn on the war and if they do raise the threshold they are going to get back all the money spent on the waR!!!!

OP posts:
SenoraPostrophe · 01/10/2007 20:52

what are you suggesting, QoQ? That we reverse time in order that we might raise the threshold for IHT?

TheQueenOfQuotes · 01/10/2007 20:56

no I'm suggesting if we pulled out of Iraq then the money spent increasing the IHT threshold would be "cancelled out" by not spending £bn's there .

Anyhow - this isn't getting the bottles washed...or the kitchen tidy, or my dinner eaten....or the clothes out ready for the morning......oh why do I always come on MN after putting the DS's to bed instead of going downstairs to get sorted .

MilkMonitor · 01/10/2007 21:12

it's not a simple "if we pull out of Iraq, then IHT can be scrapped."

Our war in Iraq is one example of why people get irate about paying tax over and over when the £ doesn't get used for our benefit.

Recognition of the cost of living including the rise in house prices is not part of the government's tax decisions. That's why we are stealth taxed.. .. . the rate of tax in all areas should be controlled by a body independant of the government. This body would monitor the cost of living versus incomes and would disable any tax levels that are taking the p*ss.

TellusMater · 01/10/2007 21:14

Really? Surely we should be allowed to vote on taxation, even if it is sometimes after the event...

SenoraPostrophe · 01/10/2007 21:14

milkmonitor - that could possibly work with regard to income tax.

but perhaps you didn't realise that inheritance tax only happens when somebody dies. therefore the cost of living is rather irrelevant.

smallwhitecat · 01/10/2007 21:18

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SenoraPostrophe · 01/10/2007 21:21

but swc - for one thing that situation is not actually very common, and for another, she'll still have over 350k to buy her own house with. what's so unfair about that? I bet it works out at a good hourly rate even if the parents live to be 100.

smallwhitecat · 01/10/2007 21:26

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Reallytired · 01/10/2007 21:27

IHT is a tax on the hard work and those who save. A young couple with children has to work really hard to buy or rent a small house in the south east.

At the same time a single mother can get housed in a council house which is similar in size. Her rent is paid for by benefits and she can stay at home until her youngest child is 16.

I work in a low income job. My salary is barely above the minimum wage. Yet I still pay quite a lot of tax and national insurance.

For me the arguement over inhertiance tax is academic. My parents are in good health. If they live as long as my granparents did then I will not inherit their money for 20 to 30 years.

I would prefer the tax and benefits system to be altered to make working pay. I also think that it should be made tougher to claim invalidiy benefit and single parents should be forced to work when their children all their children are school aged. Even if someone can't work full time they can often work part time.

Reallytired · 01/10/2007 21:31

I think that caring for a disabled relative is a job. Someone in that situation should be given an allowance. It is not the same as people who recieve money for doing absolutely nothing.

The IHT system is brutal. There needs to be more flexibility with paying tax.

smallwhitecat · 01/10/2007 21:34

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ebenezer · 01/10/2007 22:02

IT is an iniquitous tax - completely unfair. Hardworking people who've paid taxes all their lives (and our taxes in Britain are fecking huge anyway) then get taxed again!! So, yeah, raising the threshold makes an unfair situation slightly better, but doesn't actually deal with the unreasonableness of the system. And to the post which said £350 k is the same wherever you are - well, yes, literally it is the same amount of dosh, in terms of wht at it will buy you, it's deffo not the same!!
Oh and before i get ripped apart - I've never voted Tory in my life, I think many of their policies are vile, but this is one thig they're right about.

edam · 01/10/2007 22:13

You don't get taxed again. You are dead and beyond the reach of HM Customs and Revenue. (Hallelujah!) Your heirs, should they be lucky enough to come into more than 300k, will have to pay tax on anything over that sum. It's hardly the ruddy Corn Laws!

Tortington · 01/10/2007 22:18

am gonna sell buy something just under the threshold and live a copius life of excess - i might even have a drug habit.

ebenezer · 01/10/2007 22:30

OK YOU don't get taxed again, but everything you bloody own out of your already taxed income is!!! Why shouldn't someone be able to pass on what they own without getting shafted by the government so that they can spend most of their revenue on wars!!

ebenezer · 01/10/2007 22:36

reallytired I totally agree with your post. This country fucks over people who try to act responsibly, work hard and try to support themselves. I spoke to a couple just today who are splitting up and husband moving out. I tentatively asked him whether things will be a struggle and he breezily replied 'well no actually, the kids will stay with their mum, she'll now get a lone parents allowance plus other benefits. We'll certainly be no worse off and maybe even better'. meanwhile my 17 year old dd works damn hard every weekend to have a bit of spending money (dh and I both work full time btw) while school friends of hers with split parents get the £30 per week EMA. I know at least a few kids who have a parent earning over 60K - but as it's not the parent they live with, they still get the allowance. it's a fecking disgrace! rant over!

Tortington · 01/10/2007 22:42

i have no idea what the fuck the benefits system has to do with fuck all.

except that you resent being taxed to pay for it?

is that your point?

becuase its a piss poor one.

Tortington · 01/10/2007 22:43

AND....inferring that people who act resposible -are people who support themselves.

which are not people on benefits you say.

disgraceful

edam · 01/10/2007 22:48

ebeneezer, we all get taxed every time we earn or spend money. VAT, customs duty, petrol tax, tax on alcohol and fags etc. etc. etc.... why should people who inherit a shed load of money (ie more than £300k) be a special case? There are plenty of people who, as you put it, support themselves who won't be passing on anything like £300k. The size of your estate does not equate to moral worth, or hard work, or anything important except, in many cases, being bloody lucky! And that includes being lucky enough to buy a house in year x and sit there while property values go crazy.

Tinker · 01/10/2007 22:52

Was nervous clicking on this thread expecting the usual middle-class whinging. Phew! Thank god for SP/edam et al

edam · 01/10/2007 22:54

Cheers!

Dh and his sister probably will have to pay IHT on his mother's estate, if it isn't eaten up by nursing home fees. But I can't see any reason why anyone should fund a £3.3bn tax break for those lucky enough to inherit a large estate.

ebenezer · 01/10/2007 22:57

Not at all custy - i resent the fact that the benefits system is fecking unfair and makes its extremely hard for people to go out to work, plan responsibly to support their own childre, stay together as a couple.
yeah - I know we pay tax every time we earn or spend - and it's shit loads of money to pay for, in the main, shit loads of warfare. Just pisses me off that people are then taxed as well on what belongs to their family.
And no custy - the benefits system is intended to support those in need of a safty net, which doesn't necessarily equate at all with being irrepsonsible. But as I pointed out, the system is riddled with flaws from the roots up, and ends up paying out to people who don't need it!

ebenezer · 01/10/2007 23:00

and please don't make assumptions about what i resent - I don't resent paying a sensible level of tax for the public good. And don't make class assumptions either whoever that was. 'Middle class whinging' - i hate the idea of class, but i suppose if i have to label myself I'd say working class - well, me and dh have worked all our fecking lives lol