Majority of Brits support cutting or abolishing inheritance tax, new poll shows, as farming backlash grows
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/inheritance-tax-farms-agriculture-poll-b2685182.html
by Anony_mouse202
Majority of Brits support cutting or abolishing inheritance tax, new poll shows, as farming backlash grows
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/inheritance-tax-farms-agriculture-poll-b2685182.html
by Anony_mouse202
48 comments
I’m not in favour of getting rid of it. But can’t see why I should pay more on my estate than a farmer either
So the daft bastards want to pay more tax on the money they earn now, so the children of the wealthy can keep the whole of an unearned windfall on their parents’ death?
I’m sure the majority of brits don’t want to pay any tax… but that policy is clearly absurd.
The public are far too easily lead on by the media.
The only thing this poll really says is that 55% of respondents don’t know the IHT rules and that over 95% of the population will never be asked to pay an IHT charge.
Polls are worthless when respondents are ignorant to the facts of the matter they’re being polled on.
Press still pushing for abolishing when only a small percentage of estates qualify.
Estates which are just over the threshold easily avoid the tax with basic planning. The only real beneficiaries are those with £10m+ who wish to entrench privilege and power.
Which would you rather pay – tax on your salary or pay tax when you die? How about reducing income tax before looking at privilege tax. How about taxing unearned income at a higher rate than earned income?
Who is making these polls? Probably there is lots of corruption to make up such absurd results for the benefit of the rich.
Dont really understand how inheritance tax is unfair, I should get freebies because my parents worked hard? You already “inherit” shit loads through a wealthy unbringing, health, housing etc. Its not even that difficult to avoid most of the tax.
People should be encouraged to spend money while they are alive, or pass on to others who will do so. Generational hoarding is bad for everyone.
I did wonder if it would be fairer for each child to have a personal tax free amount.
I would expect a farm where, say 3 children, are working would be bigger than where there were just one, unless it were being run as a business rather than a family farm.
typical british polling responses: “we want to have everything, right now, not pay for it, no compromises or workarounds, no backtracks, otherwise your utter failures and should be hung from the gibbet for failing so miserably”
and you wonder why nothing ever gets fucking done in this country, we spend so much time trying to appease the whiniest, most precious fucking people on whoever is the dissenting opinion, until 6 years have gone by and nothing has changed.
sometimes i think this war that is reportedly coming in the next years happens, so that the general public get a large dose of pragmatisicism, but lets face it, the funds will just go 20% to the politicians, 60% to london, and 15% for the south thats within holiday reach of london, without affecting any whinging whatsoever
ITT: People who don’t know how the inheritance tax works.
Personally, I think farmers should get an inheritance tax break and here’s why –
Farms need a lot of assets to make a little income. It’s not like being a plumber where you can make £40,000 per year as one man with a van and tools that are valued at £40,000 or like owning a shop where you could make £40,000 in a year but only have stock and fittings worth £20,000 on hand. A farm would require assets of £2,000,000 to make £40,000 (because land, tractors, combine harvesters etc are very expensive). So, if a person owns a plumbing business or a shop or a farm then, when they die, they’re leaving their child the inheritance of “a business with the ability to pay out £40,000 per year if you run it yourself” – given that the money the child would receive from each of these three businesses is the same, I don’t think the farmer’s child should pay so much more.
Further, because the farmer’s child would need to sell parts of the farm to pay the inheritance tax off, that means the farm cannot function anymore. What use is a farm if you have the combine harvester but not the field, or have the field but not the combine harvester?
Within a generation, we’ll see farms in England (because this almost exclusively affects England) completely break down and food prices will surge too. We’ll have to import far more which is bad for the environment and bad for the economy – and gives us less control over animal welfare and food standards too.
The problem is that, because of this tax break on farms (which was in place for the legitimate reason I just outlined), many people (like Jeremy Clarkson and that bloke from JLS) bought farms purely to avoid inheritance tax. They put £2,000,000 into a farm, pop their clogs, and Jeremy Jr. pays no inheritance tax and sells the farm to someone else for the full £2,000,000. But, that could simply be resolved by making the inheritance tax due on sale of the farm. So, if a legitimate farmer bequeaths the farm to their child then they would get the tax break but if a celebrity tax-scheme farmer does the same then they wouldn’t get the tax break.
There was clearly a more appropriate way to tackle this loophole.
Do what other countries do, tax the farm if they aren’t producing anything. If they are active and are using every but of land, then fine. That would get Andrew Loyd Webber out on a tractor. lol
If there were ever a tax, or an economic policy, that highlighted the flaw in the electorates mindset; to make emotional arguments and be largely ignorant of the scope of a government mechanism it’s inheritance tax.
Tax the rich.
Tax wealth not work.
Incentivise productive Labour.
Close tax loopholes. These four things would poll with similar popularity. Yet they’re in direct conflict to the notion of abolition iht.
The only argument you hear is ‘I was taxed on my income’ is disgusting/theft if the government tax what I pass on. Neither of these valid contentions are relevant to the real world implications of iht in its current guise.
4% of estates pay inheritance tax, the vast majority on estates over £2m.
This ladies and gents, is why the rich buy newspapers.
Really the options should be “Do you want to abolish inheritance tax and raise income tax?” Or “Raise inheritance tax and reduce income tax?”. I dont think anyone happily pays taxes but it’s a necessary evil to live a society.
The poll is unreliable and biased. It doesn’t represent the majority British opinion; “polling, conduced by Public First for the Taxpayers’ Alliance – a pressure group campaigning for a low-tax society – saw 55 per cent of people say they would support cutting or abolishing the tax.” This is a skewed group of people. It’s like conducting a poll and asking only turkeys if they are in favour of xmas. Typical elite media pushing its elite agenda into the minds of ordinary people who won’t be affected by this. TLDR; It’s completely bs*
As a broke Millennial with a well off dad I wouldn’t say no.
It’s about the threshold, it just needs to increase a bit in line with inflation, and house prices… There is no need to abolish it. Working class families that worked their arses off all their lives, and being punished due to factors outside their control, and that’s not right. How is that social mobility?
Inheritance tax is one of those policies that makes logical sense in theory but in practice, only serves to maintain the barrier between the rich and the working class.
I think a lot of people will disagree with this because many wouldn’t class anyone with a £350k estate as working class. But I feel that has a lot to do with the false idea that we have a middle class and an upper middle class.
If you drop the labels, there is a class of people that are taxed 6 ways from Sunday and a class of people that aren’t. IHT is just another way for that to happen.
Taxes are unpopular, in other news the sky is blue
Don’t people realise this would quickly lead to the average person not having much they could even pass on?
The super rich would hoover up all the assets
Those Brits have no idea what this inheritance tax is about…
Certainly should increase the threshold before inheritance tax is levied, its not the families fault that house prices are rising.
But in general, whilst some tax should be based on ability to pay, other taxes should be based on wealth that is not active in the economy.
Inheritance tax is double taxation pure and simple.
I want a more equitable tax system too but this is not the way to go about it, it’s regressive, poorly thought out and doesn’t really help the poorest in society moving forward, especially as for a lot of them inheriting a property may be the only way they can ever own one.
Britain still has these bizzare taxes like Inheritance and landlordly taxes on property because nobody owns the land their property is on. This is making the people poorer at absolutely no advantage to the government.
I like that they say majority of Brits. When it’s just a few thousand that took the poll. That’s not a majority. That’s not even a fraction. It’s like 0.000001% of Brits. I completely back the inheritance tax because I’m not thick and understand it won’t affect a load of farmers. Those against the tax probably don’t actually read anything into it, they just believe the drivel that the wealthy spout.
thats one way to keep the class system entrenched i suppose.
More inheritance tax please, less PAYE.
Reward egging work not luck.
Only the richest 4% of the country pay inheritance tax
Brits are honestly such a docile and subservient lot.
Majority of Brits probably don’t know you don’t get taxed on the first 325k you inherit.
Total fucking lies. The majority of UK tax payers want the 1% to pay their fair share of tax, including Inheritance tax!!
You got to shake your head at the very people who complain that the country is going to shite like Clarkson always moaning but ask hi. To shave off some cash to help it support it is like asking them to burn it down.
another poll that actually shows people dont have a clue about the subject. Sure its a bit complex, but jeez go look at mse guide it takes about 5 minutes.
you can leave £1m as a couple to your kids without paying a penny….
As with most taxes supposedly leveled at the wealthy (including top bracket of income tax), the *truly* rich find ways to avoid paying most of it. Generally it’s the middle class that gets hit instead. Especially as many of the tax thresholds haven’t kept up with inflation.
More effort should go into closing loopholes used by the rich, rather than squeezing the middle. I’m aware that the rich buying farms was one such loophole, but that can be closed without shitting on the nation’s farmers.
I think inheritance tax to farmers should be abolished or reduced heavily. However, people who are not farmers but still own farmland do not get that benefit.
Idk what an effective way to differentiate between the two would be but yeah
I am shocked that when people were asked if a tax should be reduced or abolished, people said “yes”.
Truly Shocked.
I mean, who could have guessed?
People who keep saying taxing the dead etc. we have capital gains, blah blah.
The dead aren’t being taxed the dead are dead and can’t pay tax. The one receiving the wealth is being taxed on their gains.
I never understood why IHT was the most hated tax. I’d rather pay taxes when I’m keeled over and being buried six feet in a ditch than when I am alive.
LMAO
The working class has always and will always be it’s own worst enemy 🤦
Like most things to do with tax no doubt the average person doesn’t have a clue about the rules and thinks they will lose out when a relative dies except they won’t unless that relative is considerably rich.
I have one or two in my line of inheritance and don’t have a single issue with having some of it go to tax.
The limits are such that anyone that does miss out on x amount due to tax is pretty greedy as the tax free amounts give anyone a more than comfortable amount.
But I bet those same people would also oppose the introduction of a different tax to replace it and also oppose any cuts.
Farmers can fuck off. It’s more right wing misinformation as part of their ongoing non stop attack on the government.
Exactly why political education matters in a democracy… How ridiculous.
You could pick any tax and poll the British public, and without fail, they’d always say it should be abolished.
But the poll results are meaningless, because the public arent tasked with balancing the Treasury, and a huge percentage of them wont think about any consequences, beyond their own situation
You cant govern a country by respecting every public opinion poll (as we saw from Brexit)
People don’t know how IHT works. An absolute slam dunk for Starmer would be to put out simple adverts or TV programmes that explains how simple aspects of the tax system work. IHT would be one, progressive taxation would be another(‘no point in getting paid more because I’ll be in a higher bracket’), maybe another could be to explain the benefit system (they’re not all having holidays to Ibiza), another could be personal allowance (and fiscal drag) and finally we could talk about how NI contributions aren’t your pension pot.
Most people and most farmers will never pay any inheritance tax…
A majority of Brits also voted to leave the EU. Maybe we should stop assuming the majority knows best.
The masses opting for the option that makes them worse off and the rich richer… tracks for this stupid country ngl.
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