Vince’s land tax land grab

Rhoda Klapp

So, is there some sort of a record for how many stupid policies one pol can announce in a day? Or for just how completely bloody stupid a supposedly clever man can be?

Richard of York

I see Andy Burnhams land Tax dressed up as st vince's idea.
Actually its the most sensible suggestion to have come out of the politics this year.

Tax the property and land and do away with income and council tax. Now thats a good idea. Anyone who defaults would have the land taken back into public ownership. Companies would pay business rates on volume and land value...sounds good to me.
Just to stop people just buying land abroad we could include land off-shore too.

Nick

When will they learn. You can't solve problems with more taxes.

Marcher Baron

What with an attack on capitalism (what does he think generates the money?) and an attack on the means of agricultural production (what else does he mean by a tax on land?) Vince is hell bent on completing the ruin started during Labour's last 13 disastrous years in office!

Steven Clarke

Actually Vince's support for a land value tax predates Andy Burnham's. As a member of a group campaigning for the support of LVT within the Lib Dems, I know Vince has been making the case for some time within the party. Not that the media have paid any attention.

alexsandr

lovely. I pay income tax on my earnings to own a house, then I pay tax on my ownership of my house. Nice one.
What about pensioners who live in a largeish house but have very small disposable income. This will go down well with the silver voters, I feel.
Also, will all land be taxed the same. so a square metre in central london will be taxed same as a square metre at the top of Ben nevis. If not then we end up with an army of land valuers.
Tax should be on income, not ownership. If you cant get enough tax income from that, then you are spending too much.

AG

Land tax is the socialists poll tax.

Misty

Next they will be suggesting to revive the window tax.

laverda

Labour and even ex labour luvvies like Vince love to tax, taking peoples money is what their purpose in life is.
I prefer a system that lets you keep as much of your money as possible and lets you decide if and how to spend it and to actually save your own money.

Nicholas Hallam

Property and land can't run away, but the people who own it can. Seems like a brilliant ruse to frighten off rich people and cause a property crash.

TrevorsDen

Cable speaks like the economist he really is.

In fact the idea of a land tax first really originated in America following independence. Some States actually implement one.

Can we really expect other taxes to decrease? This is one very important point. If it replaced IHT I think you would find quite a lot of people liking it. Even more so if it replaced rates (sorry council tax).

But there must be reasons why its been rejected in the past - not least under Labour governments. The 'asset rich but cash poor' are an emotive issue.

Tom Burroughes

The idea of a land tax has its origins in the writings of the American economist, Henry George, in his book, Progress and Poverty. The ideas, in essence, was to tax rises in the value of "unimproved land".

For a variety of reasons, economists down the years, such as Murray Rothbard, Frank Knight and Marc Blaug, have attacked this idea as unworkable, since drawing the distinction between "improved" and "unimproved" land values strikes is actually not that easy to do. There is also the issue of what happens, say, if a person buys a house when land is cheap, and land values skyrocket, and this person is faced with either paying a crippling tax, or selling up and paying a hefty tax on the profit. That hardly seems very fair and it is also a general assault on property rights. A lot of the impetus from LVT does not come from pro-liberals, either, but from those with a general dislike of land ownership, and these are no friends of liberty.

Land value taxes are based on the superficially plausible idea that as land is a "given" and is fixed, that it is easy to collect and fairer than some other taxes. It probably is, but high land taxes also penalise efficient allocation of land. And not all land speculation is bad, any more than other forms of speculation, since it plays a part in the pricing system of a market.

And I very much doubt whether a Liberal Democrat government would counterbalance an LVT with other tax cuts except perhaps for the low paid. The middle classes, as ever, will be stiffed.

Chris lancashire

laverda: beautifully put.
Lefty politicians spend all their time dreaming of new taxes. The rest of us are too busy earning it.

rumpo

@Laverda:
Wipe the drool from your chin and take your medication.

AndyLeeds

Taxes on property are always stupid, so one could almost guarantee Vince Cable would think it a good idea. Man is an idiot.

Gary Williams

Vince Cable - the most over-rated economics thinker since Gordon Brown.

Until he gets straight that the banking crisis did not cause Britain and other countries to have profound structural economic problems, it merely brought forward the time when their reality could no longer be ignored, and until he gets straight that this grubby island is not the only place in the world where the nasty bankers who have contributed many billions in tax revenue in the last 15 years can reside, he'll continue to be a waste of space.

Pete

Richard of York.

Could you please give us some numbers to support your proposition

Thanks

Tom

Genius idea.

The banks lend too much on land and have to be rescued by the state.

Just as banks are recovering politician suggests land value tax to demolish property values all over again.

Well done.

CDK

LVT is still fraught with problems. I am not happy about the thought of it. It is something that would have to be implemented in a truly fair manner and properly balanced; something today's politicians are hardly capable of. It would also have to replace ALL other forms of taxation, absolutely ALL forms. No half-way measures.
I have read the various websites about LVT and I can see what they're getting at, but it could still disadvantage groups of people in all sectors; especially those on fixed incomes such as pensions, and those with no incomes at all. It could also drive people out of their homes if the tax is too high; which is why the formula for "valuing" land has to be utterly without prejudice. I do not yet see how such a formula can be created without subconsciously favouring certain social sectors.

michael

Wonder how the property development market/BUSINESS would react to this crap...

8 story garden-less back to backs with one small room per floor ?

I never realised that Cable-tax Vince is blessed with such inspirational forethought.

kato

There is a land tax already in operation. It's called capital gains tax, and is paid at 30%.
There are certain concessions for inheriting farmland knocking around, but given the need to maximise food production in coming years, it scarcely seems sensible further to hit farmers.

Danielle

"Tax the property and the land and do away with income tax and council tax"
Council tax is a tax on property.