Should Labour move right or left?

[truman]

You're still thinking far too small. The people you mention are mere minnows in shark infested waters. I'm talking about the 1% (probably 0.1%) who hold 50% of the world's wealth. The obscenely rich; the ones who can afford to buy a £70 million flat in London (along with equally expensive properties around the world) and never live in it, just leave it to go to rack and ruin. The ones who are hoovering up all the money in the world, leaving the crumbs for the rest of us.

 

The person who buys a £70M house will pay around £8M in stamp duty alone..

[May Blob]

The person who buys a £70M house will pay around £8M in stamp duty alone..

So...................................................

[drummonds]

So...................................................

 

??????????????

 

Do you have a point?

[Anna B]

The person who buys a £70M house will pay around £8M in stamp duty alone..

 

Good. He can afford it. That's if they can get the money out of him. There's no guarantee. He probably has some wizard method to not pay it.

 

---------- Post added 25-08-2015 at 17:06 ----------

 

words are cheap. i'm not hearing many ideas to back up these grand ideas. so you have a member of the saudi royal family who lives in saudi but buys a £70 million flat in london but doesn't live in it. what tax liability do you think he has for owning this flat and how would you propose taxing him to get it? do you think that simply ownership of something should be taxable? do you think that owning a picasso painting should render you liable to a tax bill?

 

Yes, yes and yes. We pay purchase tax (VAT) on many things. There ought to be a supertax for the big boys toys. Buy a superyacht for £150 million pay 40% VAT. Want to own 10 houses? Pay an increasing amount of extra tax (sliding scale) on every one apart from the first, depending on the purchase price. Own a Picasso? Then pay tax on it, (partly exempt if willing to loan it out to various Art Galleries,) and so on.

[drummonds]

 

Yes, yes and yes. We pay purchase tax (VAT) on many things. There ought to be a supertax for the big boys toys. Buy a superyacht for £150 million pay 40% VAT. Want to own 10 houses? Pay an increasing amount of extra tax (sliding scale) on every one apart from the first, depending on the purchase price. Own a Picasso? Then pay tax on it, (partly exempt if willing to loan it out to various Art Galleries,) and so on.

 

not really an answer. if i were that saudi royal i'd simply invest my money in paris and keep my picassos there and my yacht in monaco. now what'ya gonna do?

 

ps. i like your idea of taxing private landlords although it is going to make renting a house rather more expensive.

[May Blob]

People should stop and think why the labour party was founded and who founded it, nothing like the closet torys of Blair.

[janie48]

People should stop and think why the labour party was founded and who founded it, nothing like the closet torys of Blair.

Change the record.

[Anna B]

not really an answer. if i were that saudi royal i'd simply invest my money in paris and keep my picassos there and my yacht in monaco. now what'ya gonna do?

 

ps. i like your idea of taxing private landlords although it is going to make renting a house rather more expensive.

 

Buying up expensive things is not really investing. As far as I know we don't build superyachts. But taxing them hard cash will at least put more money into the economy.

 

Unfortunately property is different because of the rate of price rises. If I was a builder and could build a block of flats, would I build 'affordable housing' which I could sell for £200,000 per unit. Or Luxury flats aimed at the super rich where each unit can sell for £70million. Sure the spec would be more expensive, but the profit is still huge.

 

We need affordable housing, especially in London, but even the most modest dwellings are being 'gentrified' to get maximum profit. This puts them outside the pocket of most ordinary people on ordinary wages.

[drummonds]

Buying up expensive things is not really investing. As far as I know we don't build superyachts. But taxing them hard cash will at least put more money into the economy.

 

Unfortunately property is different because of the rate of price rises. If I was a builder and could build a block of flats, would I build 'affordable housing' which I could sell for £200,000 per unit. Or Luxury flats aimed at the super rich where each unit can sell for £70million. Sure the spec would be more expensive, but the profit is still huge.

 

We need affordable housing, especially in London, but even the most modest dwellings are being 'gentrified' to get maximum profit. This puts them outside the pocket of most ordinary people on ordinary wages.

 

actually we build rather a lot of very expensive super yachts. we also build some of the world's top label cars. we can of course tax these items so the super rich won't buy them over here. you can buy your bentley or sunseaker yacht just as easily on the costas. the difference is the tax is paid there rather than here. if the demand for aston martin, bentley and rolls royce in the uk reduces the german owners may well decide to manufacture them in germany instead or the indian owners of the range rover brand shift production to india where the rich people are allowed to spend their cash.

 

there is a reason why pop stars, sports stars and others with wealth move away from the uk. much of it is to do with tax. the likes of lewis hamilton pay millions in tax. they just don't pay it here and the vat they pay on their yachts and big boys toys is collected by other governments because of the greed of the uk tax system.

[RonJeremy]

actually we build rather a lot of very expensive super yachts. we also build some of the world's top label cars. we can of course tax these items so the super rich won't buy them over here. you can buy your bentley or sunseaker yacht just as easily on the costas. the difference is the tax is paid there rather than here. if the demand for aston martin, bentley and rolls royce in the uk reduces the german owners may well decide to manufacture them in germany instead or the indian owners of the range rover brand shift production to india where the rich people are allowed to spend their cash.

 

there is a reason why pop stars, sports stars and others with wealth move away from the uk. much of it is to do with tax. the likes of lewis hamilton pay millions in tax. they just don't pay it here and the vat they pay on their yachts and big boys toys is collected by other governments because of the greed of the uk tax system.

 

It doesn't matter how many times you repeat these facts, people like Annab still don't seem to be able to grasp them. Are they thick or do they just not want to believe it?

I think "good riddance" is the stock answer when the penny eventually drops on the basis that all wealthy people or businesses are inherently evil.