Good article
Hope they do it for once and for all .
1 Like
Spencer was described in 2018 as the richest self-made person in the City of London. According to the Sunday Times Rich List in 2021, he is worth an estimated Ā£1.2 billion.
Spencer served as Treasurer of the Conservative Party from 2006 to 2010, during which time the partyās finances moved from a deficit of Ā£8m into a surplus of Ā£75m. In 2020, he became Chairman of the Centre for Policy Studies, the think tank and pressure group founded by Margaret Thatcher. He is also Chairman of the Conservative Party Foundation, a company established to strengthen the financial future of the Conservative Party.
Spencer has been a donor to the Conservative Party. ICAP and Spencer have made Ā£4.6m in donations to the party although Spencer was critical of the May governmentās business policies. Spencer was nominated for a peerage in Cameronās resignation honours list for service to the Conservative Party while its treasurer. He was nominated for a life peerage in the 2020 Political Honours and created Baron Spencer of Alresford, of Alresford in the County of Hampshire on 17 September.
'nuff said ā¦ 
1 Like
A Conservative Treasury minister and one of Liz Trussās major campaign donors both said they would like to abolish inheritance tax, as they urged the prime minister to continue with her āpolitically braveā agenda for wealth creation. (1)
Andrew Griffith, a City minister under Kwasi Kwarteng, said tax was not his policy area but inheritance tax would be his top choice for a tax to abolish.
(1) Thatās wealth creation for the wealthy only, of course ā¦ 
Griffith first worked for Rothschild & Co and PwC, before joining Sky in 1999 as a financial analyst. By 2008, he rose to become Skyās chief financial officer, joining the board of directors, and at the time of his appointment was the youngest financial director in the FTSE 100. In March 2016 he also took on the role of group chief operating officer. When Comcast acquired Sky in 2018, Griffith earned about Ā£17m from the sale of shares.
Boris Johnson used Griffithās Ā£9.5 million townhouse as his leadership election campaign headquarters. In 2019, Griffith became Johnsonās chief business adviser, based in 10 Downing Street.
'nuff said ā¦ 
1 Like
I have to declare an interest since it is likely that my estate may well dip into the taxable band.
I think that linking IT to reflect house prices, which is probably that largest asset anyone leaves in most cases, would seem the most sensible option.
2 Likes
I can still remember a time (just 60 years ago) when not many people had a bank account, not round here anyway. The only ones that did had something like a Yorkshire Bank penny savings account. I donāt think there were āCurrent Accountsā then.
Then came those years when factories wanted to dispense with cash and those little brown packets containing your wages. I, and and few of my friends held out as long as we could, insisting that we continued to be paid with ācoin of the realmā but unfortunately the tide of progress swept over us and one of the conditions of starting work on a new job were, that wages were paid into your bank account.
If we wanted anything, we would save up and buy it when we could afford it. Then the world seemed to go mad. With a āBarclaycardā in your wallet you buy virtually whatever you wanted and sod the cost.
Since then everyone carries a card of some description, and even the cards are becoming obsolete, you can pay using your phone now after downloading the āAppā whatever they areā¦
You never need to see the queens smiling face (or kings) looking back at you from a scruffy crumpled up paper note. Even they have been replaced with fancy new plastic ones that are the devil to fold and stick in your wallet. Perhaps they wonāt be in circulation for very long anyway if the establishment have their way.
So everything you earn or spend now leaves a paper trail, or should I say electronic footpath. So the establishment can keep tabs on your wealth and what you do with itā¦The banks can even prevent you from obtaining your hard earned brass if they donāt think you have a good enough reason. Consider direct debits, and your wealth takes on a life of itās own, whether you agree or not, most people nowadays arenāt even aware of the private life of their account until the bank starts applying penalties for being overdrawn.
So donāt even think that you can get away with telling porkies about your wealth because they are watching you!
1 Like
I donāt care how rich he is
If he can get rid of inheritance tax for the masses who will be penalised because of house prices Iām for him .
So do I and it annoys me no end .
1 Like
The masses may be penalised but Iāll bet that he wonāt ā¦ 
1 Like
Maybe not but he is raising the issue .
Inheritance is a perfidious tax that falls heavily on the small person with a house which may be their one and only major asset .
The IHT allowance has not got up for about 12 years whereas house prices have rocketed.
Our new king doesnāt have to pay INT a on the Ā£500 MILLION that he is likely to get from Mummy yet he has himself a vast portfolio of properties .
The whole thing is absolutely outrageous!
1 Like
Inheritance tax is a good thing.
Inheritance is an unearned gift for those receiving it. It just arrives with no need to evidence anything to gain it. The beneficiary is simply being taxed on earnings they receive.
The people who benefit most are the rich. Effectively without taxing inheritance to some level the rich are keeping their wealth within their own family. To remove inheritance tax is grow inequality, to put pressure on other taxes (often non-progressive taxes like VAT) and reduce the overall tax take - so likely to lead to cuts in services.
Plus, taxing inheritance provides an incentive to spend ones money rather than hoard it. Thus stimulating the economy. (Ok, this last claim is as suspect as claim in the above article that inheritance tax makes people move overseas.)
2 Likes
Managing an inheritance tax bill
Estate planning can save a huge amount of tax. Inheritance tax is usually charged at 40% on anything above your nil rate band. Taking action early means more of your money will go to your beneficiaries. There are many ways to manage, reduce or eliminate an inheritance tax bill, including:
- Making gifts
- Using other assets to provide a retirement income and passing on your pension
- Taking out a life insurance policy to cover the tax bill
- Using tax-efficient investments to benefit from Business Relief
1 Like
Thanks Omah. Weve made arrangements to mitigate matters. Life would be a whole lot easier if natural variation of an estateās value due to inflation etc was taken into account on a regular basis, rather than on a political whim once in a blue moon.
The masses donāt have to pay inheritance tax Muddy, because nobody I know has those kinds of assetsā¦Only the wealthy from the leafy suburbs down South will be penalisedā¦
I donāt live in the leafy suburbs darn sarf foxy, and I aināt rolling in it. But I (by which I mean my children) will be stung by it.
Hateful tax inheritance tax.
However if the government get rid of inheritance tax there will be another tax to take itās place , we can win.
@Dextrous63 , Your case illustrates the need for the lower tax threshold
to be moved upwards Dex ?
Seems to me that thresholds have been moving downwards despite claims
to be a low tax society ??
The obscenely rich should be taxed more to make up for what was stolen !!
I donāt know what century you live in but anyone who has a house in the south of England and many in the north will fall into the inheritance tax trap .
A semi detached house in Berkshire ex local authority will cost you over Ā£500k
Ditto in the Cotswolds where I live .
We are not talking baronial mansions here but ordinary bog standard boxes .
A car will put you back at least Ā£30 k so many many people will have to pay inheritance tax and itās not graded .
It jumps straight in at 40% so anything you leave over Ā£325 k is taxed at 40%
Thatās 40% of what you hoped to leave for your children or grandchildren to help them buy a home perhaps .
40% will go to the government , to support people who never worked in their life .
40 % nearly half of what you have left over Ā£325 k
Now you may live in some Yorkshire backwater where you can get a house for 50 p but most people donāt .
We know you resent anything good that happens to young people but most people donāt they want to help their children or grandchildren .
The average deposit for a house now stands at about Ā£30 k
Most people cannot catch up to theis figure ā hence generation rent ā paying horrendous rents means they have nothing left to save so a little inheritance would mean a lot to them .
Yet in true feudal fashion you no doubt support the fact that King Charles will pay NO IHT on his vast inheritance unlike his poorer subjects who have but one asset to leave to their family .
1 Like
Itās not a good thing.
Inheritance tax falls most heavily not on the rich .
The rich can afford to give away their money while they are alive , hence the large amounts of young rich people who are ātrustafarians ā they live on inheritances put into trust for them.
Plus rich people can afford various tax schemes to avoid paying some of it .
If your only asset is your house you cannot give it away , you cannot put it in trust .
Trusts are tricky and expensive and need expert setting up .
Inheritance tax is a tax on aspiration people who have worked and earned their money and bought a house want to leave it to their children so they may have a leg up in this world , something they need especially in todays troubled times .
Also it is money that has been taxed once .
It hardly makes for equality seeing as our head of state King Charles pays NO IHT and thereby can pass on his incredible wealth tax free to his son .
Itās so outrageous itās beyond all comprehension .
Charles the billionaire who owns a vast property portfolio pays NO IHT
Nada ,zilch ,sweet F all .
The money that the tax makes is not so vital that it will save the NHS and will certainly not affect any services . We arenāt getting them now anyway .
Itās a wicked unfair tax and should be abolished .
I own a typical 3 bed semi in Manchester. The going rate is circa Ā£370k. This is not a posh area with wealthy people in it. I bought it about 14 years ago for Ā£240k. Yet the IHT threshold hasnāt changed to reflect natural price increase.
2 Likes
@Muddy , but it is a good thing Muddy as long as the lower threshold for
paying it is moved substantially upwards !!
This would redreess all the downward tax creep that has caused this furore !!
