| Topic: | Re:Re:Re:Re:Osborne's Mansion Tax | |
| Posted by: | Tom Pike | |
| Date/Time: | 03/05/15 10:18:00 |
| Lorne, at this point I can see that while you're able to understand your errors, you're less willing to admit them. I didn't question your underlying numbers in your calculations - they all seemed reasonable estimates - just how you then calculated a revenue loss. It's clear you now want to revisit your estimates to try to compensate for your errors, but as I said, you're arguing with yourself over this. I am surprised that the CPS estimate of an associated revenue loss of £180m from a mansion tax of £1.1bn compared to your original estimate of a £2.3bn loss has not given you pause for thought. You appear rather isolated in your claim that a mansion tax won't raise anything, but in fact come at an overall cost in tax revenues. In fact Osborne has already introduced a mansion tax in all but name. I give him political credit for that (and a correct spelling of his name!) though there's clearly an element of hypocrisy in then criticising the other parties proposals that to do a similar thing. There was evidently an unspoken three-party consensus that the tax levied on high-value properties had to rise, though the details differ. For example the current implementation catches a much broader swathe of the homes, stretching down to properties valued from £937k up, rather than £2m. It is also a higher-rate tax on the average "mansion" that the Labour and Liberal proposals. Your dire warnings of a property collapse are both a little too late and evidently a bit overblown. |