Labour's Mansion Tax proposal

[delc]

Problem with the Mansion Tax is that in the London Area quite a modest terraced house or even a large flat could count as a 'Mansion', whereas up North even a genuine mansion might not. Apart from anything else, people who own historic mansions have had a hard enough time looking after them without this additional tax, which might bear no resemblance to their actual incomes. Crazy proposal, as you might expect from the Labour Party!

P.S. I do not own a mansion or anything like it.

 

[Hacker Khan]

Problem with the Mansion Tax is that in the London Area quite a modest terraced house or even a large flat could count as a 'Mansion', whereas up North even a genuine mansion might not. Apart from anything else, people who own historic mansions have had a hard enough time looking after them without this additional tax, which might bear no resemblance to their actual incomes. Crazy proposal, as you might expect from the Labour Party!

P.S. I do not own a mansion or anything like it.

As with all things the devil is in the detail and whatever you have read will probably have some angle on it, depending if you are reading it in the Daily Mail or Guardian.

With regards to people living in historic mansions then I'm kind of guessing that it's not a huge demographic that Labour are that scared of upsetting, and not one which a policy should really be based on. Also they have said that 'the “asset rich, cash poor” may be allowed to defer payment of the tax until they sell their property.

 

[SocketRocket]

Its a nasty tax designed to be decisive and turn people against each other and create the spin story that Labour are a party for the working class.

People get taxed on their incomes, taxed on what they spend, taxed on what they save, taxed on their estates, taxed on their cars, etc etc. If someone works hard and earns money and spend some of it on a nice house then why should that bring about a special tax, they have already paid a fair share of tax already. I know some will say that these people are probably tax dodgers and bankers but thats not always the case.

This is another case where Socialism penalises grafters in favour of the feckless and is designed to detract attention from the important issues.

PS. I dont need any News Paper to assist me forming my opinion.

 

[6inchcup]

a lot of the super price bracket properties are owned by companies or non-doms who will not pay this tax,a good friend of mine bought a house worth over 1.5 million through his company,he then moved in and rents the property from his company for a peppercorn rent,this gives his company who is owned by him and his wife a asset to lend against if needed and he claims the rent on his outgoings because it is classed as a business expense due to his head office being in ESSEX ( a girl on a phone in an office ) and his main address being there but in reality is a one bed flat he uses 2 or 3 times a year,all legal and above board,accountants you have to love them.

 

[Hobbit]

The 2nd most heavily taxed country in the world, and Labour want to add to it... shocked. Whilst I can relate to their principles on social care, there's no way on God's earth I'll be voting for the tax, borrow & spend party they are.

 

[Ethan]

I bet Tony Blair won't pay it.

It is a genius move, though, from a political point of view. Bash a small group of voters generally reviled by the masses of swing voters, and bring in a tax which you can slowly ratchet down and draw in more and more people and massively inflate the take. After all, getting the principle accepted is the biggest hurdle. In a few budgets time, this could be down at £500k, probably at a lower rate to preserve the idea of progressiveness, and most houses in the SE of England will be included. And Tony Blair still won't be paying it.

What is it they say - You are all in this together?

On a broader note, the same has been done repeatedly to the upper middle earners. Individually, the idea of reducing personal allowances, taking away child benefit, reducing tax breaks on pensions, whatever, sound reasonable, but when added together, they do make a difference to many people. Few of whom were the architects of the economic collapse, nor the previous beneficiaries of the boom.