change of name ffrom stamp dury to a longwinded one, and a tax of 10% on all property sales above 250k and 12% over £1m. Theres their housing market doomed then... BBC News - Who will be the winners and losers of the new Scottish stamp duty system? Ok its not as clear cut as the headlines but really, sign of things to come to pay for all those 'free services'? And funny how this doesnt make front page of BBC website or lead on the news, but buried away now the Scots have been put back in their box :Bawling:
Splendid. So no need to limit myself to a croft on Harris. In a year's time when the Scottish property market has been decapitated there will be no houses worth more than £249,000 and no mansions worth more than £999,000. I'm going to be spoiled for choice.
Edinburgh will surely be an issue, as it only really makes a difference one you get to 325 or so, but isnt that a 2 bed flat in edinburgh?!
a house costing you £260K will leave you 4k better off. it only starts to penalize once you hit £320k the average house price in edinbro is £220k if you can afford 320k on a house you can afford the the tax might even help to lower house prices. all good. now get back in your box.:Finger::Yawn::smile:
Probably to early to judge. Might be great, might not. Probs best to wait and see how it pans out. But anything that tries to make the wealthier dig deeper cant be all that bad.
I'm amazed if Edi prices are that low Sign of things to come? And remember if those prices depress, so do the ones below it as who buys a 899 when a 1199 costs almost the same
What naivety. The wealthy in this country already cover a huge share of the tax burden for revenues the Treasury receives. It's easy to think there are these rich people with unlimited wealth you can tap into but that sort of socialism should have died out long ago. While I'm not 100% a subscriber to Reagan-style trickle down economics, it doesn't take much to demonstrate that fairer taxes generate far more from the wealthy than punitive measure designed to capture cheap votes from people with no idea.
Property value tax only works on the assumption that "the wealthy" are dumb enough to cooperate by entering a rigged market. The first thing money buys you is mobility. If you don't like what's on offer, you go elsewhere. Property isn't worth what a politician decrees it is worth, its worth what someone is prepared to pay, and if there is a punitive tax lying in wait for a property once it exceeds a certain value, house prices will simply devalue. Also fewer will come onto the market in the first place which will decrease the overall tax take from property sales regardless of how it is allocated. Margaret Thatcher was right about one thing at least: you really can't buck the market. If you try to rig the market for political reasons then while you are still congratulating yourself on your cleverness the market will have shrugged its shoulders and walked off.
Winston Churchill: "Can a people tax themselves to prosperity? Can a man stand in a bucket and lift himself up by the handle?"
Ah the Socialist Republic, where everything is free, starts to show it's true colours. Will the Scots turn to the Conservatives now that Labour and SNP have been found out ?
The country is suffering from a dose of political mediocrity. Even Labour, the party I vote for, are currently wet and a bit damp. The Tories suffer too because Cameron is a drip, Lib Dems because Clegg is just well Clegg. I'm no fan of Farage or UKIP, but he talks the talk and people listen. The other parties would do well to take note instead of doing nothing. All the Tories can do is blame Labour and make attempts to scaremonger the electorate. The Conservatives are running scared and cannot even coordinate a dignified retreat. The blame Labour excuse is wearing thin and whilst Labour did nothing to prevent the global economic collapse, neither did anyone else. No one would whilst everyone rode a wave of credit and binging. Which surprised me as even I saw it coming a year before and sorted my finances and repaid my debt. House prices cannot continue to rise as they did for paltry properties without something giving out. It was fucking obvious to anyone who remembered the last recession.
Throughout my lifetime, and long before, the then-current crop of political leaders has been described as mediocre, pygmies, lacking in vision, etc. etc. and compared unfavourably with the previous crop of political leaders. This is the "looking back to the golden age" theory, so temptingly seductive. I don't buy it. John Major, Harold Wilson, Anthony Eden, Jim Callaghan, Edward Heath - they were all at least as mediocre as today's bunch; if anything rather more so.
Maybe so Pete but at least there was clear division between their policies. These days they all overlap to the point no one stands out. Its become homogenized and safe. Only UKIP seem to provide any modicum of Radicalism, albeit right wing. I'd like to see a bit more radicalism from the left, not too much mind. I cant help thinking the reaction to New Labour has seen Labour try to be a bit more cautious with their policies. Plus Ed doesnt convince me. Maybe we can get Dennis Skinner to give him a challenge.
