Tuesday, October 09, 2007

Alistair Darling on Inheritance Tax

If 96% of estates pay no inheritance tax and Conservative proposals to raise the threshold to £1m were "an example of where the Tories are making promises on tax which they can't afford to pay for", how can Alistair Darling now afford to increase the limit for married couples just one week later!?!

2 comments:

The Sage of Muswell Hill said...

The simple reason is that this is not a tax cut: twice £300,000 (the present limit which applies to individuals) equals £600,000. It just makes leaving £600,000 to your children a little easier so that you don't have to go through the hassle of setting up a trust to "set aside" £300,000 on one death to go to the kids on the next one.

It's pathetic how MSM tax "experts" (and others including Osborne who didn't pick this up) are so easily fooled.

Snafu said...

Umbongo, thanks for the correction!

It seems to have been another example of Labour spin as the MSM focus on inheritance tax rather than increasing levels of debt, economic growth slowing next year and a rise in overall taxation the following year!