Inheritance Tax
Inheritance Tax seems ridiculous to many people me included. Would it be OK to go to a shop pay tax on something and then have to pay tax again once you were fnished with it-which is basically what happens with Inheritance tax! You pay tax on money to pay for your home and then when you die you pay 40% on it again!
With property prices rising more and more people will have to pay Inheritance Tax of 40% on propety valued £300,000 and over.
Gordon Brown has initiated measures to prevent Inheritance Tax avoidance which could be backdated to 1986! These would mean any payment of £5,000 or more would need to be considered as Inheritance. Pensioners who inherited property since 1986 will have to pay Inheritance Tax on it!
Fortunately for Gordon Brown with the scarcity of new properties and inflation in prices no-one will be able to afford one so most people will not notice! As usual the people with the most money will have the best advice and more options to avoid paying 40% tax on already taxed income, with the government penalising middle earners who have taken Government advice and saved carefully for their later years.
Inheritance Tax is set to bail out Gordon Browns government to the tune of £3Billion!
I agree with your arguments, but sadly the hard-earned money you use to buy your house has been taxed more than once before you eventually pass it on to your children. You will have paid VAT, income tax, council tax, insurance tax and many other mechanisms devised to releiev you of your hard earned money. All the more reason to see an expeert and avoidInheritance Tax.
Comment by Gordon — 21 April 2008 @ 6:18 pm