Is it just me, or are these Tory tax proposals mental?

[Bugs ****ing Bunny]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7021357.stm

Mr Osborne told the Conservative party conference in Blackpool that the £3.1bn cost of increasing the inheritance tax threshold and the £400m bill for scrapping stamp duty would be funded by imposing a £25,000 per year charge for non-domicile taxpayers.


There are between 150,000 and 200,000 people who live in this country but who do not pay tax on the money they make abroad, he said.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown has been under pressure from his own party on tax breaks for wealthy "non-domicile" residents.

Mr Osborne said the inheritance tax change would benefit nine million families and ensure "only millionaires pay death duties"

************

Mr Osborne said he did not want to go chasing after income in the off-shore bank accounts of non-domiciles.

"But in return for that promise and the certainty it brings, we will charge a flat annual levy of about £25,000 for those who register for non-domicile status," he said.

Later he denied his plans for a £25,000 levy would prompt high-earners to leave Britain, telling a fringe meeting: "I think that is not going to happen. For them, what they want is certainty."

I'm really not convinced that Britain has 150,000 foreigners that are-

A- able

and

B- willing

- to pay a £25,000 annual charge to live here. I suspect a large chunk of them will probably bugger off.

[kittenOFchaos]

£25,000 won't push a really high earner out.

But a flat-rate levy is just kack-handed, it should as always be proportionate to wealth earnt.

It probably is a really good policy in terms of winning votes, so they won't mind if it doesn't really add up. Their next core tory voter policy could be a higher rate of tax on recent immigrants...

[Provost Harrison]

Perhaps they should try funding it by sorting out the ludicrously uneven corporate tax system.

[Shrapnel12]

That's a hefty sum to live on a small island where it rains all year.

[Bugs ****ing Bunny]

So apparently 1 in 400 people in Britain is a foreign national willing and able to pay a £25K annual charge to live here?

Is anyone else's bull**** detector going "WOOOP! WOOP! WOOP! WOOOP!"?

[Dauphin]

Originally posted by Provost Harrison
Perhaps they should try funding it by sorting out the ludicrously uneven corporate tax system.

Please explain what you mean.

[Dauphin]

Originally posted by Lazarus and the Gimp
Is anyone else's bull**** detector going "WOOOP! WOOP! WOOP! WOOOP!"?

Oh yeah.

The whole concept being proposed is ****ing barmy. I can't even see a rational hidden motive - eg enticing foreigners to domicile to avoid the charge makes no sense either.

[Provost Harrison]

Originally posted by Dauphin


Please explain what you mean.

Leave me alone when I am trying to bait Tories

[Cort Haus]

I'm no fan of the Tories but the way this guvmint licks the bottoms of the super-rich at the expense of millions of ordinary people is nothing for its supporters to be proud of.

At least the opposition are proposing a more humane approach to stamp duty for first-time buyers.

[MichaeltheGreat]

Re: Is it just me, or are these Tory tax proposals mental?

Originally posted by Lazarus and the Gimp

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7021357.stm

I'm really not convinced that Britain has 150,000 foreigners that are-

A- able

and

B- willing

- to pay a £25,000 annual charge to live here. I suspect a large chunk of them will probably bugger off.

Sounds like it's intended to urge them to do just that.

[Dauphin]

Why bait Tories, they'll go apoplectic by themselves (well those on the right of the party).

Talking of which, did you see this:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/pressreleases/stories/2007/10_october/01//counterfeit.shtml

Kent-based Jia Jin He, a leading light in the capital's Chinese community, owns several businesses and properties across London and has previously been investigated for fraud and for activities thought to be linked to people smuggling.

BBC South East undercover reporters stumbled across the links to the Orpington businessman as they investigated a Chinese DVD counterfeit ring operating across Kent.

Bloody foreigners in my back yard.

[Cort Haus]

Re: Re: Is it just me, or are these Tory tax proposals mental?

Originally posted by MichaeltheGreat
Sounds like it's intended to urge them to do just that.

Why not introduce a special prole-tax while we're at it. Everyone on a sub-rich income pays an extra 3% of earnings which goes directly to the richest people in the country, just to say how grateful we are that they grace our country with their presence.

[Dauphin]

It's called the national lottery.

[C0ckney]

if a party came out and said that they would cut taxes by axing some of the incredibly wasteful government programs, then i'd vote for them in a heartbeat.

[Bugs ****ing Bunny]

I think they all say that.