Before the last General Election, the Conservative Party made a lot of noise about raising the threshold for the payment of inheritance tax to £1m, a change which would bring some fairness to the system given how far the current threshold of £325,000 has fallen behind inflation. Sadly, not only have they now reneged on this plan but they are also about to announce that the existing threshold is to be frozen until at least April 2018.
We pay tax on everything. Our income is subject to tax and national insurance, most of the things we buy are subject to VAT and there's a huge range of other taxes and duties which hit us at every turn. For those who manage to save something or to buy a house, there is then the spectre of inheritance tax at the last, an iniquitous tax that tries to steal what little is left.
The Government is apparently going to claim that its action in freezing the threshold at its current level is necessary to fund its new give-a-way scheme about paying for social care; anyone wo falls for that one needs their brain looking at. This is just another tax increase imposed by a hypocritical government run by people who have the private wealth and means to avoid the tax themselves; once again, the only people who will pay are those in what has been termed 'the squeezed middle'.
As a member of this hard pressed group, I am close to despair. Year after year governments of every hue headline tax cuts and benefit increases while actually doing exactly the opposite - increasing taxes and reducing benefits. Our state spends, or rather wastes, such a huge proportion of the nation's resources that it's no wonder we are stuck in a financial crisis from which I see no escape. We are heading down a very narrow road to penury; there's no room to turn around and nowhere to turn off. This latest tax increase is just another pothole along the way.
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