Monday, September 21, 2009

LibDem's mansion tax

Vince Cable's new great idea is a mansion tax - half a percent on the value of all property above £1million.

In principle it sounds like something a socialist should support. But how is it to be achieved?

How are we to estimate the value of houses? Be they worth a million or more, or not? Who shall carry out the valuations? Who will carry out the appeals?

Where a house is worth say £1.1million, and the tax quibbled over is something like £500, what will the legal costs be in fighting this?

Are the LibDems planning on using already out of date rating valuations? Or would they set up a whole new load of land valuation people to work this out? And what would that cost?

Is this just manna for estate agents?

Is this the north-south divide writ large? How many houses are there in Liverpool in the plus £1million bracket? Probably none I think, yet we have people on big incomes who should be paying something, if the LibDem philosophy is to be understood.

Will this penalise the Londoners at the expense of the northerners? And is that a good thing, or a bad thing?

I just don't see the workings on this one, it is simply a massive gimmick surely?

3 comments:

Adam White said...

One good idea I've heard being floated around is the establishment of a "wealth tax". The idea was to collect a 1% windfall tax from people with more than £1million in assets. As you pointed out there is a few problems with the land tax, m no expert but i would assume its much easier to establish someones net worth than it is the current value of any land they own.

Louise Baldock said...

I have just heard on Radio4 that LibDem MPs are calling this plan "suicidal" and "complete codswallop"

Louise Baldock said...

Obviously the LibDems want to protect their mates in Liverpool who really do live in big houses but which are not quite worth these sums. Like a former Lord Mayor for instance.