personally I think that somehow we need to find a way to pay for the care costs that seem fairly likely at the end of life. On a personal note it would be great if we could avoid all the care costs for my mother and thus be able to inherit her house and the cash in her bank. However I am not sure that this is fair on others in society as a whole, by doing that we would basically be asking others in society to pay for her care costs whilst we as a family avoid that cost and then benefit from inheritance upon her death. Yes from my own perspective currently that seems great but I don't think I feel so generous when it comes to my own taxation being used to fund someone's care and their family then inheriting the estate when that person dies. As to capping care costs and making sure that you are left with at least £100,000 left in assets. This is great in terms of passing on wealth down the family line but again I can't help but feel it is likely to pass a large amount of care costs onto the wider society. At the end of the day someone has to pay for the costs of care...
Quote from: Davo on May 19, 2017, 08:26:59 pmpersonally I think that somehow we need to find a way to pay for the care costs that seem fairly likely at the end of life. On a personal note it would be great if we could avoid all the care costs for my mother and thus be able to inherit her house and the cash in her bank. However I am not sure that this is fair on others in society as a whole, by doing that we would basically be asking others in society to pay for her care costs whilst we as a family avoid that cost and then benefit from inheritance upon her death. Yes from my own perspective currently that seems great but I don't think I feel so generous when it comes to my own taxation being used to fund someone's care and their family then inheriting the estate when that person dies. As to capping care costs and making sure that you are left with at least £100,000 left in assets. This is great in terms of passing on wealth down the family line but again I can't help but feel it is likely to pass a large amount of care costs onto the wider society. At the end of the day someone has to pay for the costs of care...I agree with abarro's take on this. In theory it's a big step in a progressive direction that taxes the richest most highly and allows a £100k chunk to remain untaxed. Though I'd go further. I said a couple of years ago somewhere on here that the fairest tax system I can think of is to have extremely low income tax - to encourage industrious creators of wealth to create wealth for us all while they're alive; and extremely high inheritance tax - to discourage generational wealth-building and start to re-balance the wealth inequality which has built up in this country over hundreds of years. A 10% income tax rate and a 80-90% inheritance tax rate on assets greater than, say for e.g., £500,000 (with current loopholes closed) would do a lot to help build a more equitable society. Details of implementation obviously are key. The implementation argument can be leveled at all parties, not just conservative. Just that the cons 'are' going to be implementing policies and Labour/Lib Dems aren't - anytime soon - until they get their shit together.My self-made millionaire mate strongly disagrees, funnily enough, with my notion that he shouldn't be allowed to pass down millions to each of his daughters. Self-protection of genes versus greater good of society..
Yup - thats the argument that Inheritance tax is the best social 'leveller' - its not too dissimilar from the state owning everything ideas of communism (gentle troll... )
I personally think that (with a number of stipulations listed below)this policy is one of the most radical ideas that has been put forward by either side in the whole election so far and actually more socialist than a lot of the lefts ideas. I think that those who can afford to pay for there own care in old age should have to. It seems utterly absurd that you should rely on the government to pay for it all whilst you own assets worth far in excess of these costs; assets that then just get passed on to your next of kin after death with a minimum amount of tax. You might shout that you have already paid your dues to build that asset but your kids have not and pretty much get it gifted to them.The issues i have though are in the detail.How will it be funded- This should not allow any private companies to profit. No annuity type mechanisms.It should not be used to reduce the spend on social care - The pot should remain the same but this policy should reduce the amount sharing the pot therefore increasing the standards of care for those unable to fund themselves.The 100k figure needs to be looked at- Where does this sit in relation to the average estate value? It seems a reasonable sum to leave to my kids to me but some might disagree.The loop holes for avoiding this need to be sorted- its presently so easy to avoid inheritance tax its a joke.I find it amazing that Labour appear to be against the idea as it seems to be very much set up to take from the wealthy and help the not. This is the 1st policy from either side that has really got to the problems that we face with long term care. Most of the other stuff you hear to much about such as re nationalisation of everything, fox hunting and free school lunches are just irrelevant in the bigger picture yet seem to clog up 99% of the social media space. Its a brave effort from May as it really hits at the heart of most of her supporters. Its up to labour to now scrutinise the policy and ask the right questions. I am not a Corbyn fan at all but can thank him that due to how shit the opposition has got its actually allowed the Torys to risk throwing something out there that needs to be done but will not be liked by their supporters, something that would not have happened if the polls were closer. I also find it interesting that a Tory policy that definitely sits to the left of their others has had a bigger effect on labours standing in the polls that all of there own put together.
How on earth would owning your own home put you in the poorer end of society.
It seems utterly absurd that you should rely on the government to pay for it all whilst you own assets worth far in excess of these costs; assets that then just get passed on to your next of kin after death with a minimum amount of tax.
I think the whole proposal is a bit crude hence why i put my stipulations but think the general idea is good. I am also not suggesting that this replaces inheritance tax, far from it i am all for increasing that as well.
Currently inheritance tax only kicks in at £1 million (40% rate)
No, £325Khttps://www.gov.uk/inheritance-tax/overview