Reading The Entrails

In his Budget speech, little George Osborne muttered something about 'making owners of high value properties pay their fair share of taxes' (why he refers to 'residential land and buildings' as 'property' is a mystery to me).

At a mundane level, what I think he means is doing something about Stamp Duty Land Tax avoidance schemes using limited companies, or possibly he was referring to the fact he's increased the annual non-dom levy from £30,000 to £50,000* for people who have been here for more than twelve years.

On a more optimistic level, perhaps Uncle Vince is right (and he ought to know, seeing as he can just ask at the next Cabinet meeting) and little George is thinking about something like a Mansion Tax.

* What is entirely bizarre is that people in this country have no respect for real wealth, it is only 'land ownership' (which is not real wealth at all) which confers some sort of exalted status. Don't forget that the non-dom levy was originally a Tory idea a few years ago, which Labour enacted. I don't see the Faux Libertarians out on the streets comparing this to the Window Tax.

So if wealthy non-dom's are asked to pay £30,000 or £50,000 a year EACH for the privilege of living in the UK, that's fair game. But if instead they were asked to pay 0.5% of the value of their homes above a very high threshold of £1m or £2m (i.e. a levy for the privilege of living in a certain part of London or Poole, Dorset) that would be seen as an attack on 'wealth' or something.

PS, the number and type of people paying the non-dom levy and the amount of money it raises would be broadly similar to the amount raised from the Mansion Tax.