Lib Dem treasury spokesman Vince Cable says plans for a 0.5% annual levy on the most expensive homes will raise £1bn.
The new charge of 0.5% would apply to the value of a property above £1m. So if a home was worth £1.5m the 0.5% tax would apply to £500,000 of it, meaning the owner will have to pay £2,500 a year. On a property worth £10m the tax would be £45,000 a year.
I heard on the radio the Lib Dems saying basically that people that earn more should be paying more tax. The proposed tax was also mentioned in the same breath as Council Tax with the spokesman saying it is unfair that owner of very expensive houses such as a £10m property don’t pay any more Council Tax than someone in a lower valued property, say worth £2m.
This is the most ridiculous thing I have heard for a long time. As far as i’m aware Council Tax is supposed to pay for things like the Police force, the Fire Brigade, rubbish collection etc. Do people that live in a property worth £10m use these services more than the same size household that live in a £500,000 property? I don’t think so.
People that live in very expensive houses clearly must earn more than the average person. The more money you earn the more you pay in Income Tax so you have already paid more taxes.
What about the people that bought a house say 50 years ago for very little in today’s money that is now worth over a million because of the rise in house prices? Should they be taxed because of the way the property market works? Something that is out of their control.
When you buy a house over the threshold (currently £175,000) you also have to pay Stamp Duty. Stamp Duty is charged as a percentage on the whole purchase price, something else that I think is unfair. From £250,000 to £500,000 the Stamp Duty rate is 3% so on a property bought for £500,000 you would pay £15,000 in Stamp Duty. Properties purchased for over £500,000 are subject to a 4% charge so for a £500,001 property the Stamp Duty would be £20,000.
On a property bought for £1m the Stamp Duty is £40,000. So again, people that choose to buy a house for over £1m have already paid a lot more in Stamp Duty than people that buy lower value houses.
Every where you look people that earn more already pay more. I think the only people that can think this is a good idea must be jealous.
What do you think?
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and, I suppose he is going to employ an army of people to go out and value all these properties – how much will that cost?
and I assume that there will be an appeal process if you think they have valued your house wrongly – how much will that cost?
really, these politicians need to engage brain (if they have one) and a bit of common sense (which I doubt they have any of) before opening their big mouths ….