Peter Rhodes on juggling with tax, falling out over apostrophes and warfare as a spectacle for the masses
Now, watch this trick very carefully. Tomorrow the Chancellor Jeremy Hunt may scrap or reduce inheritance tax (IHT).
This will leave a multi-billion pound hole in the public purse. However will he fill it? For the answer, look no further than Wales. The Welsh Government is considering re-banding houses for council tax (Wales today, us tomorrow?).
The change could mean people in tiny houses paying less and those living in mansions paying more. It sounds grand but the lesson of history is that when taxes are aimed at the wealthy, a lot of unsuspecting folk suddenly find themselves defined as wealthy. So your liability for inheritance tax goes down but your council tax goes up. Abracadabra, and the show goes on.
