| Topic: | Re:Re:Re:Mansion Tax and Bedroom Tax | |
| Posted by: | Joe Conneely | |
| Date/Time: | 19/04/15 22:52:00 |
| The mansion tax is a prime example of how tax ideas get re-developed. It has been on the Lib Dem agenda for several years in different forms with Vince Cable being a very early advocate since around 2009. It was never a front runner for the other major parties until recently. The growth of the South East property market against overall national values over recent years means this tax becomes potentially attractive for all parties to revisit. George Osborne proclaims he is against it in any form yet indirectly though his recent stamp duty hikes on higher value properties introduced a "one off" form of the tax. In turn it morphs into a possible vote winner for Labour selling it to people who are largely unaffected by it as and when initially introduced. Forget the "mansion" moniker - this is ultimately a wealth tax by another name based on a single class of asset. And the Lib Dems who kicked it all of now think it is a bad idea having evaluated it further. Instead they want better use of council tax valuation bands to raise local revenues than occurs at present, which intuitively seems the more sensible proposition in avoiding new taxes and related collection problems plus being a more equitable national tax change. |