Balls – Mansion Tax already in planning

11:32 AM, 23rd December 2014, About 10 years ago 8

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Ed Balls, the Labour shadow Chancellor, has already asked the Treasury to start planning for the Mansion Tax to be implemented before the General Election. Mr Balls wants the tax to be levied “day one” of a Labour administration and will be part of his first budget raising £1.2 billion to be invested into the NHS.

It is estimated that 100,000 people with properties valued over £2 million would start to pay the levy in the 2015-16 financial year starting April 2015 a month before the May general election.

Mr Balls said in an interview with the Independent ““saving the NHS will be at the heart of our first Budget. I would like to see that revenue coming in in the first year of a Labour government, before the end of the financial year. We will have to see the practicalities.”

“A charge is paid in that financial year on the valuation on a date in that year. We will be clear what we are going to do in our manifesto. No one will have any doubt about our intentions. “I am sure that the Treasury will be gearing up to make sure we can deliver this. As a backstop, we will legislate for the mansion tax to start in the following financial year 2016-17.”

Details of their proposed scheme have been announced on Labour’s own website as below:

Labour’s mansion tax will only apply to homes worth £2 million or more. The vast majority of houses, even in London, are worth far less than this – the tax will apply to fewer than 0.5 per cent of the homes in the country. And the £2 million threshold will rise in line with the average rise in prices of high-value properties over £2 million – so the number of properties paying the tax will not increase. If prime property prices continue rising then by the time the tax is introduced the starting point will be higher than £2 million.

Labour’s mansion tax will protect those who are asset-rich but cash-poor. People in high-value homes who do not have high incomes – those who do not pay the higher or top rate of tax, and earn less than £42,000 a year – will have the right to defer the mansion tax until their property changes hands.

Labour’s mansion tax will be progressive. Those owning properties worth £2-3 million will only pay an extra £250 a month through this new tax – the same as the average top band of council tax. We think that owners and investors in properties worth tens of millions of pounds should make a much bigger contribution. And we will look at asking overseas owners of second homes in the UK to make a larger contribution than people living in their only home. It can’t be right that the foreign buyer of a £140 million flat in Westminster earlier this year will pay just £26 a week in council tax – the same as the average-value property in that council area.

Labour’s mansion tax will use a simple banded system. Valuations will not be needed for most properties – it will be clear which band they fall into. The government’s new tax on properties bought through companies relies on owners submitting a self-valuation to HMRC – so will the mansion tax.

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Comments

Neil Patterson

11:47 AM, 23rd December 2014, About 10 years ago

There are many Ifs, Buts, Maybes and hung Parliaments" here before any one gets excited.

However I can see a lot of properties at £1,999,995 instead of £2,000,000 just like the old Stamp Duty and then how do you accurately value a property at this price point?

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Ian Ringrose

12:39 PM, 23rd December 2014, About 10 years ago

Easy, you make it a legal requirement that anyone claiming their property is worth less then £2,000,000, must except the first offer they get of £2,000,001 even if they don’t wish to sell the property.

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Mark Alexander - Founder of Property118

13:22 PM, 23rd December 2014, About 10 years ago

What a load of ..... Balls?

They've got to get elected first! LOL

My concern, if they do get elected, is how long it will be before some bright spark in the loony lefty camp will think it is a good idea to roll this out to people who own multiple properties with collective valuations of over £2 million!

We must never allow the Labour Party to get back in power. Just check out the differences in their MP responses to our discussion thread Is Your MP A Landlords Chamption" against what the Conservative MP's have to say.

See >> http://www.property118.com/mp-landlords-champion/69840/
.

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Kulasmiley

13:45 PM, 23rd December 2014, About 10 years ago

I agree with Mark 100%! To protect the vulnerable is not what Labour does! It takes a load of money and wastes it. The Conservatives push enterprise, empower people to help themselves, make people think not in terms of what they can take, but what they can make! By the way, my family has always supported Labour, and that's why we grew up always broke!

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Harlequin

17:53 PM, 24th December 2014, About 10 years ago

So if the £2m property is let - is it the tenant or owner who pays and if owner (more likely) rents will rise - lots of HMOs in Central London can come under this apart from single tenancies - and as usual London supports the country. Isn't it time London was made exempt or have a proportionate valuation. My £2m flat against your Country Mansion hardly fair

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Ian Ringrose

17:58 PM, 24th December 2014, About 10 years ago

I don't think the level of the tax will have much effect on the profit from a £2m hmo, unless the HMO is already making so little that it is not worth the effort.

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Neil Patterson

9:51 AM, 26th December 2014, About 10 years ago

Reply to the comment left by "Harlequin Garden" at "24/12/2014 - 17:53":

From what I have read the intention is for the owner/landlord to pay.

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Neil Robb

12:27 PM, 26th December 2014, About 10 years ago

Hi All Merry Christmas

I can think of more effective ways to raise money more fairly. Why can we not have a tax rate of 20% no matter what you earn.

You can set a earnings of £15,000.00 before any tax is paid.

Any one who tries to avoid paying this will have all there assets seized. I can guarantee the government will bring in far more revenue than at present.

This rewards people who try and encourages other to follow knowing they will reap the rewards of there hard work.

If the government really want to save the NHS then lets start with the way you would look at a business.

You don't have so many managers. Big pensions and pay off for those that don't perform and do there job correctly.

Staff who think it is acceptable to abuse the sick policy and leave hard working colleagues to do there work. Private company's most people do not receive any pay for the first three days sick. Hence most don't take a day of when they are not ill as it costs them money. The amount of civil servants (not just NHS) who think it is a right to take time of Sick because they get paid when they are not ill is ridiculous. Any civil servant reading this will know what I am saying is true and know colleagues with this attitude. If they were treated the same as private sector you would see a huge drop in the sick rate. and as such the cost for people on overtime.

Why not allow your staff to work overtime, instead they register as an agency worker and get a far higher rate of pay.

If you are a big business you buying power you dictate to the supplier not the other way about.

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