| Topic: | Re:why the Mansion tax is utterly wrong | |
| Posted by: | Andy Rooney | |
| Date/Time: | 03/09/14 12:52:00 |
| Where on earth do you get the idea that we pay the highest property taxes in the developed world? I suggest you take a look at the land of the free and home of the brave, the USA. It varies from state to state and municipality to municipality, but I'd be surprised if you find many US towns that charges less than the UK for comparable properties. We're also one of the few Western economies not to have a general wealth (as opposed to just property wealth) tax. Places with low property taxes tend to have other taxes that fund local government spending - and indeed even here the majority of council spending is funded by central government grants. Ironically the states in America that are most sympathetic to the libertarian arguments you recite below tend to be the ones with the highest property taxes, as they object on principle to the other ways of raising the funds (local income and sales taxes, principally). Our housing market is severely distorted by the status of homes as the only tax free investments available to most of us - and to wealthy foreigners. The mansion tax may or may not be the best way to correct this - perhaps capping the CGT exemption on the principal residence would be a better way - but it needs fixing. |