Election 2005 - Tax Part 1

The issue of tax in this election is a big one, today there is an announcement that the Tories will cut stamp duty, which for so many of the countries voters an important issue. They are going back to their strengths of the past and focusing on those who want to be homeowners. They say that they will scrap stamp duty on the average home.

This is being seen as opportunism, well from Labour stand point it will be, but then at the budget they had the chance to do exactly the same, but didn’t take it, so now to claim the Tories are being opportunistic is a little false, because they had the chance to steal a march on this in the budget announcement earlier on this year.

Whilst it is a good idea, I do feel that it isn’t a truly fair system. If they want to make it fair, then it should be regionally adjusted, because the average home in London and the South East is a lot more than those outside London. And I know this idea will upset a lot of those outside the London and South East areas, because they will feel it is favouritism, but it isn’t. It is just taking account of the factors involved living in such an expensive part of the UK. If the proposed rules had been in place when I brought my place a few years back, it would have saved me the best part of 2K, which I could have used to furnish my house, or other things, so it adds up. To be truly fair, it should be on the type of property and whether it is a first property or not. If it is your first and only property then if you are encouraging an owner occupier style of housing then it should be free of duty, but if it is more than your first property then that is different. Houses shouldn’t been seen as investments, because they are meant to be lived in, if you decide to create a portfolio of housing then that is an investment.

The idea needs tweaks, but a basic idea that has some credence as far as I am concerned. There needs to be an overhaul of the system, rather than tweaks

Labour on this issue really have made a right cock up and feel their thunder has been taken, well, lets be honest here, what it is, is that Labour have no idea what it is like being in the south of the country and thus their policies more than punish those who live in the south, because of higher living costs, higher housing costs, etc. And for those who believe that those living in London have a better standard of living, you are sorely mistaken, because those outside London have more disposable income despite earning less on average.

The Tories have made a lot of gain out of this, and appealed to their core voters, so they feel and it could have quite an impact, how much who knows, but Labour needs the seats in the south and thus they could feel the pinch much more now, especially from those aspiring Londoners.

The LibDems well, there seems to be little word from them as to what they will do.

Other peoples take