The IFS’s pre-Budget 2020 report makes for less-than-positive reading for fiscal conservatives, with the think tank saying government borrowing in 2019-20 is set to be £44 billion – £55 billion more than the £10 billion surplus they forecast Britain to be enjoying by now in their 2016 forecast. With Boris’s current spending plans, borrowing will rise to £63 billion next year…
The IFS has also said that Rishi Sunak should “recognise that more spending must require more tax”. It seems Rishi is taking this to heart, with reports this morning of plans to increase taxes for diesel used by off-road vehicles and machinery, and cut Agricultural Relief and Business Property Relief. Both policies would raise £3.2 billion – far off the £100 billion Boris is said to need for his splurge…
Thankfully it does seem the Chancellor is turning away from the idea of raising fuel duty after lobbying from Tory MPs in northern Red Wall seats. A letter signed by 18 ‘Blue Collar’ Tories makes the obvious point such a rise would hit working-class communities the hardest...
The Government has scrapped Philip Hammond’s stealth death tax announced at the start of this year. His proposals saw grieving families whacked with a bill of up to £6,000 just for administering someone else’s estate, with house prices dragging ordinary families into big payment traps. Guido, the Taxpayers’ Alliance, the Daily Mail, and 1922 Committee members like Charles Walker and Graham Brady pushed back hard on this policy and now have won. James Roberts, Political Director of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, responded to the news by saying:
“It’s top news that the justice minister has been clearly been reading Guido and now put the final nail in the coffin for Hammond’s hated stealth death tax. Scrapping this ridiculous rise is exactly the kind of signal politicians should be sending that they don’t simply see death as an opportunity for a smash and grab on the family silver.”
Buried politically, along with Hammond’s political career…
MPs may have so little to do that the Commons was adjourned before 3.30pm yesterday, but that hasn’t stopped the Government from trying to sneak a new death tax through on the sly. They are laying a statutory instrument today which will increase the ‘probate’ fees – which families have to pay when administering someone’s estate after they die – from £215 up to a potential £6,000. This is a death tax in all but name, hitting grieving families with a massive bill as they go through the difficult process of dealing with a relative’s death…
The minimum “fee” is now £250, which shoots up to £2,500 for estates over £500,000, £4,000 over £1 million and £6,000 over £2 million. Anyone owning property will be caught by the tax – poorer families will be forced to scrabble around for cash to pay the fees just because granny bought her own council home…
The Taxpayers’ Alliance have condemned the tax hikes and branded them “totally unreasonable”. Interestingly, some Lib Dems have picked up on the fact that it may even be unconstitutional – the Government is meant to pass a full Bill through Parliament when it wants to raise any tax, but by branding it a “fee” they are trying to wriggle through a loophole to avoid proper Parliamentary scrutiny. If it was genuinely just an administrative fee it wouldn’t be structured like a progressive tax. MPs still have the chance to stop them…
