Back-door inheritance tax
LABOUR knows how hated and resented inheritance tax is.
That is what stopped Gordon Brown calling an election in autumn 2007, but they just can’t kick the habit.
Now they plan to pay for social care for the elderly with a compulsory levy on the deceased’s estate. If they present this as a policy it would and should cost them dear. They would be crazy to bring it up before the election but unfair taxation is bred in their bones and taxing the dead is a habit they cannot break.
Care for the elderly is one of the major challenges of the new century. So far we have not managed to do it well, nor found an adequate and fair way to pay for it. But one thing is certain – a stealthy inheritance tax is not the way to go.