It is time to talk about inheritance tax, because it seems as if everyone else is.
I took part in a radio broadcast this week in which a Tory railed against inheritance tax, calling it"legalised theft". I politely pointed out to him that this tax was introduced in 1984, by Margaret Thatcher. He was temporarily derailed, but not for long. Even her involvement in this tax did not give it the credibility that all else she did probably has in his eyes.
Then he claimed that it is immoral that the amount that this tax is collecting is going up to record levels at present. He did not seem to appreciate that this is because Sunak fixed the tax-free amounts made available to those liable to this tax in 2020 and has said there is no intention to raise them again until 2027, by which time there will have been considerable inflation. If the inheritance tax take is growing, it is, like the very existence of the tax, all the Tories’ fault.
This was still not enough to calm his fury. His claim was that very soon every working-class person will be paying inheritance tax. In fact, most working-class people do not have assets worth up to £1 million at the time of this death, which inheritance tax now allows in some cases before tax is charged. Many, and most especially those who do not own their own homes, have a tiny promotion of that sum.
That is why inheritance tax is paid by fewer than one in 25 people on their deaths in the UK as a whole, and by many fewer than that in Scotland, which enjoys lower house prices than London in most locations.In fact to out the Scottish data in context, in the year to March 2021, which is the most recent for which we have data available, just 1340 estates were subject to inheritance tax, compared to 5650m in London and 4800 in the south-east of England.
This, then, is not a Scottish issue, but the loss of the £7 billion paid in inheritance tax if it was to be abolished would be, because the cost of that will fall on working people and those on benefits, without a doubt.., there is greed. This is the human emotion that the Tories now worship, quietly forgetting all that has ever been taught on that subject by all the great wisdom traditions.
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