So Alistair Darling has announced that there will now be a £600,000 threshold for inheritance tax, just for married couples and civil partnerships i.e. transferable allowances between spouses. Now we all know why he has done this, it's because they have no ideas and fear for their grip on power.
However, here's a question for you though - putting aside all the quotes that Iain Dale has - who wants to bet that if you look at the house prices in those 49 hyper-marginals there are a lot of properties that will fall into this newly announced threshold category?
Of course, really what the most interesting thing about the move is, is that they've effectively undermined their own argument against Tory proposals for tax breaks to couples because err... their panicky inheritance tax policy has applied exactly the same principle.
They cannot now stand up and accuse the Tories of punishing lifestyle choices and moralising if they then do exactly the same thing with transferable inheritance tax allowances. Actually I'm kidding myself, they probably will still stand up and say it, but they've just handed every Tory an answer... opportunistic hypocrite.
Update: Just a quick update, I keep hearing about this "top 1%" that we mustn't help. That is approximately half a million people, many of whom are not super rich, but simply have a property they bought fifty years quite cheaply that by good luck has exploded in price. Talking about them in envy politics terms is disingenuous nonsense. The real super-rich make sure what they leave doesn't get stung, and they represent far less of the country than is being touted.
6 comments:
correct me if I'm wrong, does this mean that the children of a widower/widow fall outside the proposed NL pluagerised policy?
Dizzy you will never beat a New Labour cult member with facts or logic because its not the world they inhabit. They live in a amoral world where oddly what needs to be done coincides with what will keep their snouts firmly stuffed into the trough of public money and jobs, pensions, cars and the most wonderful pension scheme in the UK.
They will believe in anything and nothing. They sold their principles and their souls years ago.
However there's is going to be loads of fun to be had with this proposal.
What of the man whose wife dies and he remarries ? What happens his estate if he outlasts his second wife and gives money the children from the first marriage and step children from the second.
What about cohabiting couples ?
How long do you have to be dead for before your allowance doesn't apply any more ?
But as you say £600 probably covers the swing voters. The announcement has been crafted to get the $600k IHT headline. That's how government is run in this country as a useful tool for NuLabour political campaigning.
They are beneath contempt.
With their spanking new IT system to keep track of council tax what you suggest would be easy is this the real reason for it?
The only reason I watch the news anymore is to be entertained by the lying and "vision" that Gordo spouts.
It must be a nightmare for the Tories, because whatever policies they come up with is merely ripped off two days later. It is obvious that Labour believe that they can lie blatantly and get away with it, because that is what they are doing. I hope they get battered in the next election.
I think this has to be the most blatant theft by Labour I have seen. Darling might as well have donned a mask walked into Osborne's office and said 'stand and deliver'. At least in the past Labour used to be a little less blatant.
Do spouses pay death duties on shared property anyhow?
I know nothing about how inheritance tax works (having never inherited anything directly) so am asking an honest question.
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