While I do not have much sympathy for Griff Rhys Jones who claims he would be “hit hard” by the proposed mansion tax, perhaps it would be fairer if this was a graduated tax on all houses, not just mansions worth over £2m (Report, 4 November). Then all householders would contribute, in proportion to the value of their property. We once had such a tax. It was called domestic rates and was the nearest thing we had to a wealth tax. It was cheap to collect and difficult to evade, which is one reason why the well-heeled hated it and the Thatcher government scrapped it, introducing the flat-rate poll tax instead.
This we know now was a disaster. The replacement council tax is still with us, but is only progressive at the lower end, so that those with “mansions” pay no more than the owners of modest family houses in parts of London. Instead of a mansion tax, bring back the rates – linked this time to capital values, rather than notional rental values. Thus all would contribute according to the value of their homes, the only wealth that most of us have. There could still be rate rebates, as there were in the past, for those who could not afford to pay. It would restore a major source of revenue to the control of local councils and improve their independence from central government and their accountability to voters.
Robert Leach
Silsden, West Yorkshire
• Andy Wightman (The mansion tax is the soft option, 5 November) gives a skewed analysis. Griff Rhys Jones is not representative of those who would fall under a property tax: many who are asset-rich, due to the appreciation of property values, but cash-poor will be forced to sell up. Nor can millionaires appropriate the entire increase in the value of properties when buying or selling – a 7% stamp duty is applicable to properties over £2m at purchase.
Regardless, annual taxes on assets are arbitrary. Those with super yachts or an impressive art collection will escape a property tax. Nor will those with millions in shares be forced to pay an annual sum for the privilege of holding them. Rather than the super-rich, property owners in London will mainly be hit. Wightman concedes that the mansion tax is badly designed. Instead, he espouses proposals to raise council tax bands so that they are proportional to the value of the property. He assumes that council tax should not be proportionate to the council services one receives.
The assertion that lower property prices would mean more resources would be invested in the productive economy belies economic logic. Griff Rhys Jones might not be the only person to leave. A depression in property prices would also lead to a fall in stamp duty paid to the Exchequer and would dampen consumer spending. There is no rationale to the notion of a property tax save punishing the rich through the backdoor.
Christopher Rowe
Richmond, Surrey
• As, according to Andy Wightman, the £4.5m increase in Griff Rhys Jones’ London property’s price is down to rising land values and not the latter’s own efforts, the alternative to the present “lax fiscal regime” is a land value tax. While taxing the full £7m-plus of land value might be retrospective and tax some value uplift a current owner did not benefit from, the same reservations could not be made if a datum line were set and land price increases taxed from then on only, accompanied by a marked increase in the money supply. Such a dual track approach has been suggested before, most recently by Martin Wolf of the Financial Times, who has proposed a from-here-on LVT, with the state taking over the creation of new money.
DBC Reed
Northampton
• Bernard Wright (Letters, 5 November) makes a good point when he suggests that imposing a mansion tax might kill two birds with one stone by increasing tax revenue and lowering net immigration, but I fear he may be disappointed if history is anything to go by. Does anyone remember Paul Daniels and Frank Bruno saying they would leave over the proposal to raise tax to a level they didn’t agree with. I note that they are still here. Are there any other celebrities still here who made similar threats/promises?
Gareth Pritchard
Daventry, Northamptonshire
• Might I humbly suggest Mr Rhys Jones sets his sights nearer to home? He can find an equivalent mansion in Wales for a couple of million – or here in the Marches for a quarter of London prices. There’d be a welcome in the valleys, I’m sure.
Jonathan Nicholas
Hereford
• Oxfam is entirely right to seek a wealth tax on the super rich who receive daily more than they can ever spend (Report, 30 October). However, as well as a 1.5% tax on billionaires, we need an urgent and substantial windfall tax to reduce their wealth to a safe level. Most of the world’s great faiths comment on the serious dangers to the rich of excessive wealth. It needs to be taken from the super-rich as soon as possible so that the hungry may be fed and the homeless housed. Otherwise they face eternal punishment, with little hope for their immortal souls.
Rev David Haslam
Methodist Tax Justice Network
• Yesterday I received my annual tax statement telling me how my tax was being used (Editorial, 4 November). As a lecturer in statistics, I was saddened by this latest example of statistics abuse from an increasingly desperate government. First, the breakdown does not make clear that most of the welfare budget goes to pensioners, and sick and disabled people, and that just 3% went towards unemployment benefit. Or that much larger amounts went to in- work benefits supporting children and families, who have been the victim of long-term wage stagnation: that 54% of those in work now live in poverty is the true legacy of this government.
I let my children know how proud I am that we contribute our tax to help people less fortunate than ourselves, or less able to work. Despite years of trying, this government has not succeeded in convincing everyone that they are being cheated of their taxes. Rather, I feel cheated of my taxes when George Osborne uses £5m of our money to soften people up for further benefit cuts.
Dr Carl Walker
National Health Action Party
• The chancellor’s misleading letter to taxpayers is only the start. Last week, Conservative MP Jesse Norman wrote in the FT calling for everyone using NHS services to receive a statement every year, showing which services they had received and how much they cost. He wants to change how people use the NHS, “to make people think twice before they make wasteful demands on the country’s health service”.
Dr Alex May
Manchester
• We at South Tyneside Retirees Association believe it is a disgrace for Griff Rhys Jones, long passed his best, to be forced to pay mansion tax. We are having a cake sale on Saturday to raise funds for him. Others may like to follow our lead. Time to stand up and be counted?
Ralph Thompson
South Shields, Tyne and Wear
