I have this morning published the next in my series of proposals that will together make up the Taxing Wealth Report 2024. In this note, I suggest that a lifetime limit on ISA contributions of £100,000 be set and that ISA tax relief now be withdrawn from those who have more than £200,000 in such accounts.
Deffo less than £200k and probably less than £100k
The argument he uses is that people who save might become rich. Therefore we must tax them.
I’ve said it here before and I’ll say it again. His finances are suspicious.
He’s been earning a decent professional income (£50-100k in today’s terms) for 40 years.
He must have got onto the property ladder in London in the 1980s or 1990s when properties were dirt cheap.
His house in Ely is worth £400-450k per Zoopla. He owns no other properties (as he wants to increase CGT and wallop landlords). He has <£200k in ISA's per the post above.
He can't have much of a pension as he's still working at the age of 65 and appealing for donations on his blog despite lucrative grants and consultancies.
What is he spending his money on?
This proposal is intended to limit the use of ISAs by the very wealthy. It will have little impact on anyone else: the majority of ISA accounts have balances well below the suggested levels in this proposal.
Once more a ‘University professor’ is unable to calculate the sum total of 100% of zero. It is as though he lives in a cave and thinks people will just sit around (especially the ultra wealthy) waiting for some fat bastard to steal their money.
For that reason the revenue-raising potential of this proposal is limited, but that is not the purpose for making it. Tax is as much about policy delivery as it is about revenue, and in this case ISA abuse is undermining the policy reason for these accounts. As a consequence, the rules with regard to them need to be changed.
Of course the obvious conclusion for most sane people is that public expenditure needs to be cut enormously – probably by up to 50% across the piece. This kind of retrenchment is likely to be forced as economic collapse, caused largely by the likes of Murphy, takes hold in the next couple of decades
“What is he spending his money on?”
From 2009 – presumably this put a dent in any savings he had at this point……
“Tory deputy chairman Lord Ashcroft has settled his libel action over a website claim that his companies offered banking facilities which helped customers unlawfully to evade tax.
Lord Ashcroft, the chairman and majority shareholder in BB Holdings Limited, accepted a public apology and a substantial undisclosed donation to a charity he founded – Crimestoppers – from accountant Richard Murphy.
Murphy, a director of Tax Research LLP, who has a website, Tax Research UK and a related blog, will also pay the legal costs of the peer and two subsidiaries of BB Holdings – The Belize Bank Ltd and Belize Bank International Ltd.”
But I agree – and this may be why he is so reluctant to publish his tax returns. Suppose (shock horror) he’s stuffing his pension with as much as he can – and not paying his ‘fair share’ of tax?
“ISA abuse”
People investing wisely and getting more than the 1% p.a. Spud thought a couple of years ago.would be great for his Green Bonds and make them a sound investment.
£400k sat in an ISA when it could be spaffed away on green projects – awful.
£400k equity in a house in Ely – lovely jumbly.
He’s been earning a decent professional income (£50-100k in today’s terms) for 40 years.
You might be correct but then again there’s every reason to be sceptical given his awkward personality and his reliance on polemic rather than skill.
He may well be a FAcSS (a fitting acronym) but that doesn’t pull in the boodle.
My guess is that he’s paid his kids way through university – course fees plus accommodation.
He’s a decent parent.
Just schit at economics, self-awareness and tax.
I did briefly joust with him about the bank deposit guarantee currently set at 100,000 euro or equivalent – I thought it should be cut back to the pre-GFC figure, he thought it should remain at the current 85kGBP. I’d put my free bet on him having more than that, but less than 100kGBP in cash.
I look at such proposals in three different way. First, for PLUs – i.e. people like us. A couple with their equities and bonds in ISAs, their cash in Premium Bonds – heavens, there’s half a million sheltered from CGT and income tax post-Potato. Their owner-occupied house is also free from CGT and from income tax on imputed rent. Chuck in some IHT-avoiding AIM shares to use their dividend allowances, maybe some VCT shares paying tax-free divis, heaps of Index-Linked Gilts to use their Personal Savings Allowances, plus some CGT-free Gold Sovereigns, and they could hold a mountain of wealth without troubling the taxman.
(And all without owning a farm.)
We’re not in that position but I’d bet some people we know are close. Once in a blue moon someone will say something about their finances that surprises me e.g. some years ago an acquaintance casually remarked that he’d exceeded his Lifetime Allowance for pension assets. Or, there’s a couple we know who retired and immediately bought a “second home” so they could enjoy more country pursuits.
The second view I take is that of Bloke in Richland. He’ll immediately think of pissing off abroad. Start taxing the income and CGs from 80% of his ISA wealth – not bloody likely.
I take it that Bloke in Seriously Richland already has accountants who can protect him from serious discomfort on this front, or has already departed these shores.
@Bloke in Pictland
That’s the thing about Spud – he always claims that his tax changes are aimed at the very wealthy. It isn’t them who will be affected. If you’re super-rich, do you give a toss about ISAs or a pension pot that was until recently limited to £1m? Spud’s limiting of tax relief on pension contributions? If you earn more than £360k a year, the maximum you can contribute and get tax relief on is only £10k anyway.
The people Spud obviously despises are the people who have achieved what he thinks he “deserves” to have achieved. 6 figure salaries and 7 figure wealth. They’d be proportionately most affected by his proposed changes. Spiteful, bitter, failed little man that he is.
@Andrew C, spot on! I suspect this is really aimed at his contemporaries from school, university and particularly from KPMG who are now enjoying very comfortable retirements while he is hustling for grants and asking for donations on his blog