Personally I’d scrap it. After all people pay for their mortgages from the wages they earn which are already taxed. However, I think there is certainly a case for changing the Inheritance tax threshold in line with rises in house prices, so that the tax doesn’t hit those who were never meant to pay it. The Building Society Halifax, has calculated that if this was the case the threshold would now be £460,000, more than double the current rate.
25/02/2007 at 00:02 |
The original reason as I understand it, for bringing in inheritance tax was to break up the vast estates of the landed aristocracy who had inherited estates over the generations and may well have been given them by patronage or conquest rather than earning them in the first place.
Land reform over the generations if you will. The only problem is it seemed to run into problems and for the larger estates was reigned in.
There is clearly no reason to tax someone who has built their wealth in one generation and paid tax on it.
Of course as soon as a tax is introduced it’s benefits are lost to the need to raise revenue, and hence we are where we are.
The same will be true of road pricing.