When the Conservatives stated that if they came to power they would raise the British inheritance tax threshold so that only the super wealthy were affected, it was considered by many to be a strong vote winner. At the time property prices were still riding fairly high and a media spotlight had been cast on the fact that increasing numbers of British families were facing a fat IHT bill if the threshold did not move markedly.
The Labour government didn’t like the Tories getting one up on them and swiftly put their own plan into action to slowly but surely inch up the threshold above which IHT becomes payable. This was positive news because as everyone knows, inheritance tax or ‘death duty’ is the most unfair tax of all. It is a tax on assets that have been taxed already and acquired with taxed income that is levied at a time of bleak tragedy in peoples’ lives…
However, Labour failed to factor in that they’d perhaps bankrupt the nation in the meantime when they said they’d allow the threshold to rise – and now that we’re wallowing in the economic doldrums and likely to remain in such a state for generations to come, Labour is apparently poised on the brink of an inheritance tax u-turn. Well done Alistair and Gordon, yet another good reason to emigrate!
It is being widely reported that Alistair Darling is planning a substantial taxation u-turn in his pre-budget report next week, in which it’s thought he’s also going to tell us how bad it really is in the UK. We’re going to be told to expect four years of severe spending cutbacks and the clawing back of cash at every opportunity by a government that has landed us in this mess and is now somehow blaming us for it! Or that’s how it feels anyway – after all, exactly how did we benefit from the hundreds of billions of pounds poured in to secure sinking banks’ foundations? We didn’t. And so why exactly should we be punished for this great waste of cash by seeing spending on essential services and infrastructure slashed? And so why exactly should we also be punished for this great waste of cash by seeing the likes of the IHT threshold frozen?
It all smacks of a desperate government without a clue – but then we were acutely aware that that was the case anyway weren’t we? And how exactly can a change of government help either? The damage has been done. Money has to be clawed back from somewhere, so whilst we’re sitting here slagging off Darling, we doubt Osborne will be able to do much better if he gets the job of Chancellor next time around.
All it really means is that it’s another gentle nudge, or indeed a strong shunt for us to think more seriously about packing our bags and emigrating and going in search of a new life in a country where the economy is not haemorrhaging, where there is a better work life balance, and where at the end of the day one is more secure on all fundamental levels. With the constant u-turns and policy amendments, shocks and scares and devastating economic reports experienced in the UK, there is nothing secure about a life in Britain any more.
And finally – the one thing we find absolutely fascinating is that despite the fact that the truth is finally surfacing about debt riddled Dubai, there are so many British expats out there still staunchly defending their lifestyle and pointing out that no matter how bad it gets in Dubai they won’t return home, it just goes to prove how bad things in Britain must be in comparison. After all, who would choose a debt riddled, bankrupt location with crumbling infrastructure, arrogant and ignorant leaders, no job security and increasing hostility between locals and migrants over Dubai?!
