Mansion tax concerns

[Bilberrybeaut]

The Greens are proposing a mansion tax in the budget, with a rumoured proposed value of ‘mansion’ of £1m. I’m really concerned that this might happen. If it does it would be the final straw for us. We earn well and already pay hundreds of pounds more EACH MONTH in income tax than we would if we lived in England. Our stamp duty was tens of thousands more. A truly insane amount of money. I am taxed so highly that my marginal tax rate is 67% and yet the Greens think I’m not paying enough tax. How much is enough???

If they want to squeeze even more tax out of us we’ll leave. You cannot keep coming back to the same people with the begging bowl. It has got to the stage when they are taking the piss. We’ll go to England and be hundreds of £ better off every month.

Lucky you.

Well the Greens are unlikely to get elected, look how their deal with the SNP panned out, after their bat shit suggestions failed to make it into policy (HMPAs, deposit return scheme, etc etc).

The greens are on par with labour for general election support. Its terrifying. If greens were to win the Scottish election, id be following you over the border and im not a millionaire.

In the crowded field of ‘who is the thickest MSP’ Ross Greer is solidly in everyone’s top 10 surely? Shona Robison, obviously, that chap who ran up £10k data bill watching a football match is up there, Angela Constance, Maggie ‘I don’t know if I’m a man or a woman’ Chapman, and everyone’s favourite Emma Harper (if you haven’t heard of her, google Emma Harper MSP and currency. Hilarious!).

Has anyone heard from the Tories on VAT on school fees? We have only been canvassed by greens, snp and Labour, all of whom support it.

The greens having the balance of power is just bonkers. They are extremists in my view - Maggie chapman is dangerous!

Interesting that your first reaction is, well I'll move to England....
Personally I would buy a smaller, cheaper house here if I felt that strongly about it - not that I am ever likely to be in that situation!

I can’t think of anywhere in Scotland where it is necessary to spend £1m+ to get a nice family home in a decent area.

A quick look on ESPC suggest only 4 properties available over a million in Edinburgh and Lothians. All 5 plus bedrooms, multiple public rooms, and in posh bits of Edinburgh and East Lothian.

Where will you move your job and family to in England, and what are property prices like there? And can you afford £30k per child on tuition fees, or will you be passing that ‘saving’ on to them?

Reported this week close to 800 civil servants, quango employees, Scottish executives, health board officials - all living south of the border avoiding Scottish income tax.

Completely agree tax differential vs England is too high. I’d like to move house lbtt means we won’t.

Usung Rightmove - Edinburgh plus 15 miles there are 88 properties greater than +£1m.

Plenty of people now commuting from South of the Border for the few days a week they need to be in the office.

@funnyorca the tories have said they will reverse the VAT.

@whyihatebaylissandharding totally agree. 3 people in my previous office moved to berwick upon tweed - lower stamp duty/lbtt when purchasing, lower income tax etc and they get the train to edinburgh once a week. Not poor people but equally not falling into the bracket op is in. This is affecting more than those at the very very top. People need to wake up.

My partner has just been told he will be getting a £12k annual bonus - £7k will go in tax if he doesnt salary sacrifice it. Absolutely ridiculous - where's the incentive.

The fact is that for most people who pay extra tax it doesn’t justify moving to England either for financial or lifestyle reasons.

Anyone who has £1m to spend on a house here could live in any area of the country, in London/SE that wouldn’t stretch anywhere near as far.

It always generates lots of moaning on here but I’ve yet to see any angry Mumsnetters who have actually moved because of it.

It’s not just the mansion tax, it’s the £600 extra we pay every month to live here, and the vast stamp duty, and it’s the ludicrous marginal tax rate. All of it. Makes you feel like you’re being bled dry. And what is it spent on? Freebies for those who choose not to work. Loads more civil servants per head than in England, an utterly useless government that does NOTHING to improve the country. Yes I live in Edinburgh. We pay what it takes to get a 4 bed place in a good catchment area - a staggering amount of money - and yet the government think we have endless extra cash for tax.

Were looking at Manchester, could get a nice house for £1m and the Scottish stamp duty would be £78k+. England would be £43k. £35k difference. That’s staggering. That’s 2 years post tax salary in my first job. Every penny we have we earned through hard work. We haven’t inherited a thing. And yes work hard and you’re sucked dry.

There are always going to be specific situations where the metrics make it easier to argue against tax differentiation, no matter what side of it you’re on.

The majority of people clearly think that they get better value living here.

The fact that more English Taxpayers are moving here than vice versa is a fairly good indicator of this.

You can have a better lifestyle here for much less than you would have in affluent areas in England, of course this will not be absolute, but in general it’s better value for the overwhelming majority.

The southside of Glasgow is now full of young Londoners who couldn’t afford anything down south but can now build a life.

How many years of extra Scottish income tax is the £35k in Manchester stamp duty? 😂

Put another way, it’s 1 lot of undergrad tuition fees for one child. Are you paying that or are they?

There’s a world of difference between Berwick upon Tweed and Edinburgh. If you prefer the lifestyle, great, but let’s not pretend it’s the same thing for adults or kids.

Though I suppose there’s probably a reasonable crossover of tax dodgers and flag wavers, the latter very well represented in Berwick.

If you live in a million pound house you have not been sucked dry ! I have also worked hard all my life and couldn’t afford a house half that value. But I still have a good home. I don’t need a million pounds to buy one.

i am sure you will love Manchester.

Yes they have moved to dodge the tax and can be at waverley in 45 mins. There are some beautiful streets in Berwick and having the station makes Edinburgh very easy to access. Berwick is on the London line so its an express train. Its ridiculous that living 45 mins down the road have different tax rates

Yes, but as the above poster stated it is a very different lifestyle choice.

Berwick is a normal north of England town that has loads of caravan parks attached and a fairly high deprivation level.

No schools are of the standard of Boroughmuir/Gillespies.

The cultural access in Edinburgh is huge, with national museums, galleries, theatres and one of the biggest arts festivals in the world.

Berwick has a couple of regional museums.

Without even looking at the financial differences it is clear that it is a very different choice.

As for tax differences within 45 mins travel, it’s a different tax jurisdiction and not uncommon.

Just ask Newry/Dundalk, Copenhagen/Malmö, Lille/Brussells, Wien/Bratislava etc…

@meeplemakeglasgow you could live in Edinburgh outwith the city centre and spend 45 mins on the bus getting into town. I live in East lothian and im 35 min train to Edinburgh. Living in Berwick is no more constrictive that either of these places.

Possibly true for some areas in East Lothian but to compare living in Berwick with living in the Edinburgh suburbs is nonsense.

Anyone in Edinburgh can decide to go into town at the last minute and pay a couple of pounds for a bus.

If someone from Berwick decided to do that it would be £25 for a return at least.

Booking in advance would be cheaper of course but life isn’t always like that fortunately.

To be clear there isn’t anything wrong with Berwick, not my taste but can see why people like it, but there will be a world of difference between children who have grown up in Edinburgh and children who have grown up there.

Adult commuters will have a very different experience of the town than teenagers who have all their social circle there and who culturally will likely be pulled more towards Newcastle than Edinburgh.

Its ridiculous that living 45 mins down the road have different tax rates

How large should the depopulated zone near national borders be in your opinion?

An hour's travel? Two? Ten?

We’re all in the UK. We should pay the same rates of tax.

Not in my opinion.

Different parts of the UK have drastically different public service needs. It's perfectly reasonable that Devolved parliaments have some leeway in choosing how to raise part of their own budgets.

Scottish Budget today (Scudget) Wonder what we will get.

Worth remembering thats it's certain income tax rates devolved to Scotland and varying powers are a few % points either way.

Savings income and CGT are UK wide. Might be others, I forget which.

Have a question for you, tax rates are not set in stone.

A month or so ago it was looking likely that rates in England were going to rise, they didn’t, not because the government didn’t want to but because Keir would struggle to survive any more political attacks.

Not unreasonable to think that when the political capital is there then tax rises will be back on the agenda.

Would you feel comfortable knowing that you could move your family/life to a town like Berwick then end up paying the same tax rates anyway while multiplying your commuting cost?