Increasing taxes and death are the only constants in our lives and it follows that none of us very much care for either.
No one likes paying tax – and especially not a wealth tax like the mansion tax.
We already have a direct tax system which is very broad.
Our income is taxed. Then if an investment is made with taxed income and a gain is made, this is taxed also. And if we spend our taxed income, this is taxed again with VAT. And if/when we die, everything we’ve acquired with our taxed income is taxed again. Not to mention the ever increasing burden of indirect tax – council tax, NI, road tax, parking tax, green tax, stamp duty…
But the mansion tax (or London tax) is particularly ill-thought out and conceived to raise votes more than income. It is Labour appealing to voters outside the South East who are resentful of Londoners and their wealth.
Everyone living in London is a millionaire don’t you know?
But there is an upside for the people who will be trapped by the ‘mansion’ tax – (or three bed end of terrace in Camden) – because it will electrify dinner party land – with people now freely able to moan about the fact that ‘one is living in a 2 mill house, darling.’
And just for the record – even though I am opposed to this wealth tax – it isn’t out of any instinct of self-preservation on my part – because although I live in London and I own my own gaff (or will do) – it is so well short of the particular threshold, so I can relax. Thank God.
