The Anonymous Widower

Inheritance Tax

George Osborne said yesterday that he’d like to get rid of Inheritance Tax, except for millionaires.  I think he should go a lot further and I have have not changed these views much since I had a letter published in the Financial Times about it some years ago.

I’ve been against the tax for years, not because I would benefit from its abolition or because I’m getting to that age, when I should start to do something about it.  But because as a control engineer by training, I just think it does untold secondary damage.
 
Consider :-

• How many bright minds are employed on both sides of the Inheritance Tax War in avoiding and collecting the tax?  Abolish and they’d have to do a proper wealth creating job.
• It is generally believed that the super-rich even if they are domiciled in the UK, pay little Inheritance Tax. I’d love to see a graph of the size of sums paid. I suspect that there are few in the millions and most are in tens and hundreds of thousands.
• The tax raises about half the amount Air Passenger Duty does! With the rise in this tax though, I suspect that recent figures will show this to be incorrect. 
• According to a survey by the BBC, many people would prefer to replace it with say 2p on Income Tax.  I’ve got an e-mail from a former Tory Treasury Minister who believes the same. 
• How many large houses in a bad state that are inhabited by an elderly couple or a single pensioner are not developed because they’d prefer to leave their children a wreck, so the children could make the profit? 
• Perhaps some of those put out of work by the abolishing of the tax, could work out sensible development schemes that would create the houses we need and give the owners a good standard of living. 
• If we abolished the tax, how many rich Italians, French, Germans and other citizens of the EU would come to the UK to enjoy the remainder of their lives.  I’ve been here over 60 years and it’s a great country, if you ignore the Iraq War, identity cards, stupid planning regulations, Government human rights abuses, certain football clubs and a few other things. 
• Hopefully these retirees would create a few jobs.  All my rich elderly friends are still at it creating new businesses.  Why shouldn’t they do it here? 
• How many inventors and entrepreneurs would come, knowing that they could leave everything to their descendents?

So it’s a very wrong tax that is well past its sell-by date.

I’d pay the two pence extra on Income Tax to avoid paying it to money-grabbing accountants.  Come to think of it I’d pay three pence! 

Is that an offer that the Chancellor can’t refuse?

October 7, 2009 - Posted by AnonW | World | Tax