| Topic: | Re:Re:Re:Mansion Tax and Bedroom Tax | |
| Posted by: | Joe Conneely | |
| Date/Time: | 29/04/15 09:00:00 |
| Don't worry Will he may yet "do a Kinnock" and answer the Tories' prayers and in the Economist magazine's quote, "snatch defeat from the jaws of victory"! My deeper worry is that in the other Ed (Balls) we will have a follow on act to Brown and Osborne who have shown little strategy or creative mindset in tackling our national budgetary malaise. Of all the "new" taxes how many have been that successful? From Poll Tax onwards only insurance premium tax and airport travel (due to their demand inelasticity like petrol, cigarettes and booze) seem to have worked. All taxes on land or occupancy from Land Development Tax in the 70s, Poll Tax, Bedroom Tax and now Mansion Tax seem to have achieved little? Stamp duty has limited usage and is a very blunt and one off tax. Even there the growth of room and attic extensions once people did the maths and worked out they could get a new room(s) in their existing homes for less than the costs of selling and buying plus stamp duty to move to a bigger house reflects that the market reacts appropriately. The potentially biggest farce was the attack on Swiss and Liechtenstein bank accounts used by wealthy Brits which seems to have been badly managed and promised over optimistic tax receipts versus actual cash take and prosecutions. This result it seems was simply because such wealthy persons with appropriate tax advice were largely able to navigate a badly structured deal which the UK had negotiated. |