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.

Work very clearly is paying for these men if they can afford to maintain a second home abroad!

I take an exceedingly dim view of a parent who would rather avoid some tax than live with his family!

Well some of us would rather not be in the UK at all. If you think the grass is greener in England then go. I’m sure other people will fill your jobs and buy your house. See ya

It is coming from my pocket, actually. I’m an Advanced Rate taxpayer, child free, barely use public services.

I’m happy to pay towards keeping people far less fortunate housed and their kids fed.

I wish I had your 'problems'. The Greens are not in Government & are not likely to be in my lifetime.

I think you need to expand your social circle. It is incredibly privileged to have this sort of problem and having a home of 1 million in edinburgh must you in the top 1%. Of all the problems I wake up worrying about, I won’t worry about you too much as I’m sure you’ll be fine.

I live in South edinburgh too. Probably in a very different part than you. And we have a lovely home and lovely friends and a lovely life I’m grateful for. I hope my kids get to benefit from the university bonus of living here (though not holding my breath) but regardless I am delighted to live in this city and I take full advantage of it.

Just in case anyone is worried about people in edinburgh I promise this problem is pretty unusual!

I don’t believe you for a minute. You forgot to mention too that you also fall into the mansion tax category and just can’t wait to pay it?🤣

You claim to be a higher rate taxpayer so presumably have an accountant to help you (heaven forbid) be tax efficient? My dh and I use ours to be as tax efficient as possible, in order to donate the amount we do to help those less fortunate.

Ha, no, a mansion tax property would be nearly 12x my very healthy income. My flat is worth about £350k so I’ll be dead by the time it’s valued at a million.

I don’t need an accountant to tell me how to put money in investments and pensions, and I don’t want an accountant to teach me how to tax dodge.

I wouldn't worry about it the Greens won't be getting in

Let’s not forget the pluses the lucky Scots have including free unis, free prescriptions….has to be paid for somehow

Not unusual at all....and not especially privileged either. How rude and dismissive of you.

My new neighbours are all from London (2 properties)

2 have young adult kids at home / uni, the 3rds kids are a bit older.

Completely different circles.
1 in oil, 1 in computing, 1 the Dad of a young colleague not sure what he does.

There must be thousands of men doing the same thing for me to know 2 and know of a 3rd.

There are 11,000 properties over £1m in Scotland not, increasing all the time. A lot of those are in Edinburgh. There are probably about 200 such properties with a 5 min radius of where I live, and I don’t live in one of the very best areas. We’re not talking unusual here at all.

we’ve a lack of detail haven’t we - we’ve got uncapped council tax rises imminent, and there’s no detail of how much this mansion tax will be,
just a date that it’ll come into effect.

Right now, there are more than 200 3-5 bed properties for sale in Edinburgh in the 400-700k bracket (which btw is still well above the average house price).

Most of these are in areas like Craiglockhart, Craigleith, New Town, Duddingston. Areas you’d have to be a frightful snob to think were beneath you.

Some of them are flats, most of them are houses - although people have been bringing up families in Edinburgh flats for generations so again, not unusual or a terrible situation.

So yes, there might be plenty of rich people in Edinburgh but those who are not, or those who’d like to avoid this tax, please be assured you do not need to house your family under a railway arch outside the city bypass.

My friend just bought her house for £160K - a house with 2 bedrooms and a garden and nice neighbours. Far more houses like this than in the £1M+ range.

It is fine to be wealthy and fine to enjoy nice things and fine to want certain things in life - but this specific problem affects the most privileged and it’s hard for me to be too worried about that. I understand that they also pay to support the local community and if all wealthy people move to Dubai we will have less to work with and that people with a lot of money often have it because they work hard - I do understand that.

But I’d be hard pressed to find this more troubling than the cuts to services and various social care funds and the dire straits I see each month when I volunteer at the food bank.

One thing to remember on all taxes like mansion tax, the value won't rise with inflation, they never do.
So while initially it will only be the top say 5% of houses affected sooner or later it will be 30% or more.

Look at the higher income tax bands, very few paid 40% tax now its 14%.
Then consider the percentage of people who choose to drop hours rather than pay 40% plus childcare and improve work life balance.

Scotland needs to get away from the tax the rich mentality.

I don’t think anyone is asking if for tiny violins really…I do think people need clarity to plan though.

I am someone who benefits from the Scottish child payment etc. but tbh rather than money in my pocket I'd rather be able to access council swimming lessons for my kids without the massive waiting list (happy to pay for them but useless if the waiting list is two years long!), rather be able to get a GP appointment for myself without running the gauntlet at 8am, rather my commute wasn't delayed by a dozen roadworks lights with no-one working at them (yes, some of these are private company works, but the approvals are managed by the council and the planning of this there is just dire).

I dislike the bribery that SNP seem to use. It's very one dimensional and I think they've had their day. Unsure who to vote for instead though.

I think the mansion tax has it's merits but without looking at the rest of the banding it's pointless click bait.

That’s pretty much what scotcast said - that it’s trivial. It should also make everyone uncomfortable that they can make announcements about tax rises with no figures.

we don’t know how much uncapped council tax is going up by, we don’t know how much this new tax will be. We do know there is a funding crisis, and that the govts on both side of the border make big changes without due consideration.

The Scottish government find it very easy to say things, but rarely follow through. The state run energy company was always the most ridiculous pie in the sky, and anyone remember the free bikes promise?

So all accountants now are tarnished with your moral brush, and in your (online) stance it’s wrong to be tax efficient. I do hope you overpay on your tax as behind your keyboard you’re so generous with other people’s.

We don’t tax dodge and we give heavily from our disposable income to charity namely homeless and children’s. That won’t stop when we move to sunnier, less socialist climes more inductive to cultivating and incentivising success.

That might be true for you but it’s certainly not true for the majority of people. Whatever you think about the tax system, the fact is that people won’t regularly donate to charity unless forced to do so via taxes. If you look at the lifestyle of the people struggling in other countries it’s far worse than here so I’m happy to pay my bit to ensure it continues. I grew up in the states which has lower tax rates and lower rates of support and you see families living on the street. It’s horrific and nothing I would want to see here.

Do people take advantage sometimes? Sure. Can politicians be greedy and selfish? Sure. But the countries that tax heavily and support their communities (Scandinavia) are certainly much better places to live than those who rely on individuals to all make their own luck.

But Scandinavia is much fairer because all are taxed heavily. Here only those that earn highly are taxed heavily. I know Scandinavia well. I have family who are Scandinavian. We won’t get good public services until:

1. We get more people off benefits and into work; and
2. We raise tax those on basic rates and reduce the tax free allowance.

Everyone pays basic rate tax which is why increasing basic rate tax massively increases the tax take. Very, very few people earn amounts that take them into the top rates of tax. If you want to raise serious money, you have to tax everyone.

I agree with most of what you say, in our case our religion stipulates a certain percentage of income for charity, but I am well aware there are plenty who could give and don’t.

I also want to live in a country that supports people in genuine need, and have seen the dire poverty in countries that don’t. We have no issue paying a higher level of tax (of course) than lower earners, but there is a level at which the gains just don’t justify the personal sacrifice.

I look at the state of our public services and don’t think people are getting value for money. This is the view of many higher earners that I know and sadly it will be left to the middle and lower earners to carry the load when they go.