Lib Dems risk Tory rift with 'soak the rich land tax value'
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...value-tax.html
Liberal Democrats risk Tory rift with 'soak the rich land tax value'
Quote:
Liberal Democrat MPs will next week drive open a damaging rift with their Tory Coalition partners by calling for extra tax levies on the rich. They are demanding new research on ‘increasing taxation on wealth’ – including a ‘land value’ levy which could cause house prices to plummet. They will call for Lib Dem Ministers to commission their own independent research on raising taxes on the wealthy. Last night, one Tory Minister called on Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg to disown the taxation calls, which will be made at next week’s Lib Dem party conference in Liverpool. ‘This is classic Lib Dem “soak the rich” stuff. Don’t they realise the people who generate wealth in this country are the rich? It’s not the people on benefits,’ the Minister said.
‘Lib Dems are in a Coalition Government now. They’ve got to show some discipline.’ The contentious motion, submitted by Lib Dem activists, says the party should ‘insist that Lib Dem Ministers are given the freedom and resources to commission research to fully assess the viability and practicalities of increasing taxation on wealth – including land values’. Senior Lib Dem MPs Bob Russell and Tim Farron last night defended the plans. Colchester MP Mr Russell said the idea of wealthier people contributing more was at the heart of what the Lib Dem party was all about. ‘The rich should pay more, that’s my view,’ said Mr Russell. Westmorland MP Mr Farron backed the idea of a land-value levy, long championed by some Lib Dems, as a way of raising money from property speculation, even though he admitted it would have the effect of reducing house prices. Mr Farron said: ‘We are trying to tax people on the basis of what they can afford at all levels but not exclusively income.’ Senior Tory MP John Redwood last night condemned the idea of a land-value tax as a ‘dagger at the heart of property values’.
The same old Liberal Democrat claptrap nonsense. I often hear 'the rich should pay the same as ourselves/more' - well i'm sorry but the rich do pay more in taxation because they earn more (which for every pound they earn the government has a generous slice) and also buy more which means they pay yet more on VAT and on other taxes in general. This is the typical witchhunt that the left go for 'well the rich are at fault' - well like it or not many people are rich/well-off for a good reason because they did well in school/worked their way up to make a better life for themselves.
The general underlying motive behind ideas such as this (which we will surely hear from the Labour Party fairly soon) is "you have done well so we will punish you with yet more taxation". Of course what this lot don't understand is that the higher the taxes you have, the rich just leave because they can afford to - so in the end you [the government] end up recieving less tax than before you hiked up tax rates.
I believe the proposal David Miliband has put forward is something along the lines of 'the top person in a private company cannot earn 20 times more than the person at the bottom of the company' - a policy which would put Britain even further behind and harm entrepreneurialism.
Thoughts on these policy suggestions from both political parties?
