Healey is considering charging income tax rates when owners hand their firms to their children, according to the Telegraph. Recycling a pointless policy other countries have already tried and binned…
Canada previously taxed family sales as dividends, making it cheaper for a business owner to sell to a stranger than to their own children. Parliament scrapped the penalty in 2021 over the objections of Trudeau’s cabinet, and even his Liberals ended up letting families spread the bill over ten years. When even Trudeau holds his hands up…
When Greece cut its tax on family handovers from 20% to 2%, a study found the higher rate had slashed investment around successions by more than 40%. Afterwards, the number of firms kept in the family rose by nearly 65%.
Family firms make up 93% of UK businesses and employ 15.8 million people. Healey is about to punish them, even if it raises a tiny amount for the Exchequer. Maybe they should all just join the Civil Service, which is what most Ministers in the Treasury would apparently prefer anyway…
Robert Jenrick on the Today programme:
“Can you now give a guarantee to your listeners this morning that no BBC presenter in the future will be exposed as a paedophile, as a number have been in the recent past? No, of course you can’t…”