Should we abolish inheritance tax? | Paul Johnson on 5 Live

[@markblance8492]

Yes..! It’s a double tax and internally targets success. Income tax has already been paid on estates.

[@EM-ty5bv]

In my opinion, inheritance taxes should be rolled into general income taxes with the same gift allowance. It is very regressive to have the same tax rate apply to the dead whose children are much poorer than their parents and the dead whose children are much richer when the two deceased people had the same level of wealth. I don't think the government should have a distinct inheritance tax either because it would be wrong to for them to discriminate against the citizen's wealth transfers no matter at what point in their life they are (with the sole exception of children or generally mentally deficient as we deem them not currently able to decide what to do with their property) as it is an arbitrary interference with the citizen's right to generally structure their life the way they see fit. It also doesn't matter if the inheritance is 'unearned' because gifts are fundamentally unearned too; yet we do not levy a flat tax on gifts given by those over the age of thirty because we recognise it as an unfair and unjust interference! Thanks for reading ❤

[@capaldij1]

The problem is the reliefs are not all to the benefit of U.K. society and what creates an IHT liability doesn’t just hit the really wealthy these days. Trusts and gifting - these primarily don’t get reinvested in U.K., no job creation or boost for the economy and therefore greater impact on tax receipts- they just avoid tax and the money often gets invested overseas. It’s madness. EIS and AIM on the other hand at least provide significant multiplier benefits to taxation, job creation, productivity etc. Surely a tax on excess wealth unless certain targeted investment reliefs are applied would be the way to go. Rather than Mr & Mrs Bloggs being worried about the next generation being hit by inheriting their property as they happened to live in the South East where prices have risen dramatically and the family home (which has really been bought as a utility rather than an investment per say) is creating this hated taxation scenario.