Just when you thought Gordon Brown couldn't fall any lower in my estimation, and he is already down there with the scum of history, I note that it is now less than a month before HMRC increase the interest charged on IHT due. Yes Gordon Brown's government is so short of money that they consider it worthwhile chiselling money out of the bereaved.
Inheritance Tax is iniquitous anyway, why should the estate of a dead person have to pay tax on what was the proceeds of taxed income? Currently any estate worth more than £325,000 (including the main family house) will have tax levied on it at the rate of 40%. Why? But if that tax is not paid within six months then an interest charge is levied., That interest rate has recently been calculated at around bank base rate but because Gordon Brown has so comprehensively screwed up the UK economy, interest rates are currently so low that the interest rate on IHT is zero. So the rate is being raised to 2.5% above base rate, initially that makes a rate of 3%. Of course when interest rates rise, and they will have to, this will be a nice little earner for the Treasury. Meanwhile the rate of interest paid on taxpayer overpayments of IHT will be made at 1 per cent below the bank base rate (although this will not go below a minimum of 0.5%), how generous.
It is good to know that from cradle to grave and indeed beyond the grave, this Labour government will screw you for every penny they can. I hope all you people who fell for Tony Blair's easy charm and Gordon Brown's "reputation" for prudence and competence, feel suitably ashamed. Labour governments wreck the economy, it's what they do, and this one has wrecked it more than any predecessor.
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2 comments:
These duties are payable on the estates of the deceased.
The sane, who have included not a few tories, prefer this painless taxation to taxation whilst alive.
You may get a rebate if, once having shuffled & etc, you pipe down.
I am aware that IHT is paid by the estate not the deceased but it is still a tax on taxed income. If the government did not waste so much and kept its nose out of many things that should not concern it then maybe IHT could be abolished without increasing other taxes.
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