In a throwaway line some months back Nigel Farage said that when he came to power - an event even more likely now - he would scrap inheritance tax. In the light of new numbers from our chums at HMRC that moment can’t come soon enough.
A record £8.2billion was pocketed by Starmer so he could spend it on huge pay rises for train drivers (£93K for a five-day week) and increased benefits for the idle. Only a decade ago that number was £3.8billion.
And it’s going to get a lot worse. As you know, farmers will be badly hit by being forced to pay on death a 20 per cent tax if their business is worth more than £1million. Since food security is such an important subject, why should we attack the very people who supply 65 per cent of what goes on our table.
I don’t want our farmers taxed, I want them encouraged. If they used their power like the train drivers, we as a nation, would come close to starving to death. Fortunately, they are much too decent for that.
Starmer says we need their money to improve public services. That is b******s. In their last budget Reeves took £10billion of our hard-earned money and handed it straight over to state workers.
But there is worse to come for ordinary people in two years time. From 2027 pension pots will also be included in the estate. And it’s at that moment that inheritance tax will become a major political issue compared with today.
Farage is right - your life’s work shouldn’t fund the welfare state - Kelvin MacKenzie
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So, congratulations to Farage for spotting this nice and early. It will be a massive vote winner for him. I saw one estimate that said over the next twenty years the decision to include pension pots in IHT will raise £65.4billion. That is a lot of potatoes.
Therefore, Kemi Badenoch (or whoever follows her) will have to offer something similar or face a bigger defeat than she is likely to suffer in any event.
Inheritance tax is quite wrong. You have worked hard and paid your taxes through gritted teeth and you want to hand your money to the people you love and not the state since you probably don’t approve of the way they spend it in any event.
In my case outside gifts to my family I want some money to go to Alleyns School in Dulwich, South London, where I was "educated’". I did poorly there -they were pleased to see the back of me - but I object to their class warfare VAT imposition on the school (my place was paid for by Southwark council) and I would approve that my cash would either help pay wages or capital projects at the school.
Much better spent than Angela Rayner getting her hands on it.
One of the bizarre outcomes of the huge growth in house prices (Mystic Mac forecasts that boom is at an end) has been that many mums and dads will be leaving substantial amount to their kids. Much larger than they ever received from their own parents.
This will lead to tensions in multi-layered families with lawyers looking forward to an explosion in High Court cases battling over the wills, as such huge sums will be involved.
Labour will claim they need inheritance tax to fund the welfare bill.
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In the case of me and my brothers we received a note from our dad saying that we wouldn’t receive a penny as it was all going to his second wife. I didn’t care but I know that even today it still rankles with one of my brothers.
I know of one billionaire who spends his entire time working out if it’s wise that he leaves such massive amounts to his grandchildren as it will mean taking the bite out of life and therefor reducing their lives to sitting in Claridges sipping tea.
Sounds lovely, but that won’t do the nation or their kids any good. For the very rich we should offer tax incentives so that they leave a decent chunk to universities and the like. There will still be plenty for the grand-daughter they dote on.
The rich are able to either pay, or not pay IHT by deciding if they spend their last days in the UK or sell up and move to Monaco. For most of us that is not an option.
Which is why Nigel Farage is so clever in promising to dump the tax. Labour will claim the state needs the money to fund the welfare bill. I do hope they put forward that argument since the Reform majority will be even bigger than predicted.
Your lifetime’s work should not be funding the SIDS (Skint Idle Dim Socialists).
