You’d think that people campaigning about taxation would be able to understand the basics of taxation, no? Although, given the competition from people like the Senior Lecturer perhaps not. But this is still pretty good even given those strictures. Tax Justice UK has just noted that tax breaks for millionaires are mostly enjoyed by millionaires. And isn’t that a surprising outcome?
The background here is that there are various reliefs about inheritance tax. Agricultural land doesn’t pay it. Family held businesses don’t and so on. And then they go on to complain that these breaks are enjoyed by people who are already wealthy. Shame!
[perfectpullquote align=”full” bordertop=”false” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]Tax Justice UK’s new research finds the government is handing out up to £666 million a year in inheritance tax reliefs on land and business property to families who are already well off.[/perfectpullquote]Very much the number of the beast there. But this isn’t odd at all. For as they also note:
[perfectpullquote align=”full” bordertop=”false” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]Inheritance tax is unpopular, but most people don’t own enough to pay it since every couple can pass on up to £950,000 of their wealth tax free.[/perfectpullquote]That is, only millionaires pay inheritance tax. So, any breaks there are on inheritance tax are quite obviously going to be enjoyed by millionaires. Because no one except millionaires has to pay that inheritance tax.
It’s a complicated concept, isn’t it? Who knows, one day maybe we’ll get tax campaigners who are able to understand it. Until then, of course, Shame!
The language we use matters - it provides clarity to our own thoughts and enables…
It is now generally acknowledged that the structure of the NHS needs to be overhauled…
In the film Apollo 13, a loss of oxygen causes the crew to start inadvertently…
There's an idea out there which seems intuitive but then so many ideas do seem…
When we think about the darkly opaque goals of modern central bankers as they relate…
As the papers recently filled with the distressing images of desperate souls looking to escape…
View Comments
Strictly speaking the passer doesn't pay. The punter, or in this case the legatee, pays. Who may or may not be a millionaire. Who may in fact be several individuals. The dead millionaire has no need to give a toss.
Exactly. If a billionaire left it all t the NHS, would they be complaining if he minimised the tax paid?
It would not be ‘enough’. The NHS never gets, can never get, ‘enough’. There simply isn’t ‘enough’ in the Universe to satisfy the ever open maw of the World-Class-NHS (tm).
"up to" is always misleading even if the advert isn't a straightforward lie ["at up to 50% off" invariably reflects a price "somewhere between 50% and 100% of the price" not "somewhere between nil and 50% of the price"]
Then "handing out" - they are not handing out a single penny, they just are omitting to seize the property of private citizens.
Thirdly "every family can ..." - bullshit! Every person can pass on up £3000 per annum free of IHT by making an inter vivos gift, but to utilise the large concession you need to live in an expensive owner-occupied house/flat which you bequeath to a direct descendant - not an option available to Philip and Theresa May, nor to several of my friends who own flats that are now expensive as they were able to buy them 30-odd years ago because they were childless with (more frequently two) incomes from respectable jobs.
If the poor want tax breaks, they should go out and work harder and become millionaires.