Quote:
Originally Posted by Osem
Yes I love the term 'mansion' deliberately used to imply that those who'll be being taxed on the notional value of their homes are all somehow landed gentry living in vast country piles, huge Belgravia terraces and swanky City penthouses...
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Sorry and all that, but the idea that there are gazillions of elderly people with no cash living in £2 million+ properties is total bollocks. This is frankly propaganda spread by a party that loves painting anything to the left-wing of some of its positions as being somewhere between socialism and communism.
Property in the UK is massively under-taxed which is part of the reason so much dodgy money goes into buy-to-leave here. The only tax we have on property is council tax which is frankly laughable as you go into the extreme high-end.
The mansion tax is, however, a weak idea. A
land value tax would be better. Land has value thanks to the actions of government via investing in infrastructure, controlling release of land for development, etc, only fair the government should receive some of the proceeds rather than it all going into private hands as a taxpayer handout.
---------- Post added at 11:21 ---------- Previous post was at 11:20 ----------
Quote:
Originally Posted by heero_yuy
I'd rather see some additional council tax bands so that the money is spent locally rather than going into the Treasury's maw to be given to scroungers and ne'er-do-wells as election bribes.
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Except it wouldn't be. Central government would just reduce the size of its grant to the local authority in parallel with increased council tax receipts.
---------- Post added at 11:29 ---------- Previous post was at 11:21 ----------
While on the topic of propaganda about that
letter from '5,000 small businesses' supporting the Tories.
Frankly pathetic. That CCHQ hold the electorate in such disdain they attempt to pass this excrement off as legitimate is genuinely insulting. That the Torygraph just regurgitated it tells readers to avoid the newspaper if they want anything bar a Conservative Party political publication.