Originally Posted by
Blue Skies
Death Duties as they are commonly known, and worryingly we already do have them in legislation, its just that they are set at zero so would be very simple for any govt to change that figure. They wouldn't have to go through the process of establishing them in law.
The problem is at least twofold, the wealthy are able to protect that wealth for future generations via Trusts so they tend to unfairly hit the less wealthy, and secondly again they can have a damaging impact for the countries economy when assets like farms or businesses have to be split up & parts sold off to pay for the Death Duties or even force the sale of family homes.
A CGT seems much fairer & less damaging.
Aside from this other countries like Australia, UK, Sweden have a much higher top tax rate than we do.
Australia 45%
England 45%
Scotland 47%
Sweden 52%
NZ 35%
And ACT wants ours to drop to 28%