Is a mansion tax really such a batty idea?

Surely 1% of £2.5m is £25000 not £5000 as implied in 3rd paragraph.

How long before this starts dropping down the price scale and before you know it people in £250,000 houses are paying?

As with all personal taxes the very wealthy will find ways of avoiding it, leaving "middle England" caught due to having "Too much - but not enough".

Good old fashioned Purchase Tax is the only really fair way out - something that VAT was supposed to solve. However, there is such a mess of public spending and benefit scammers that no amount of "Taxing the rich" will ever compensate.

Lib Dems may dream, Tories squirm and Labour turn a blind eye to wasters. What the world needs is justice - and mankind doesn't have the answer.

I would like to know how many of the properties > £2.5m are owned by Offshore-Trusts. I for one believe a "land/mansion" tax is a great idea. Like VAT, it is the only way to get some tax contribution back from the non-doms/"Offshore" owners who have benefited without paying for so long.

A property tax should be levied on the price paid for the hose. That way pensioners who have been living in the family home would not be caught in a tax trap. It would effectively be a tax on property speculators . I would also include a land grab clause so If I sold you my property for a pound the tax man could match that and have the right to then sell it on at fair market value.

Yet more daft ideas from a party that hasn't a hope in hell of ever being elected - thankfully

5% stamp duty

council tax bills that have doubled over a decade and now so called "mansion taxes"... are people not already paying enough on their houses? they are not responsible for their inflated value and if they bought them in the last 5 years they wouldn't have been beneficiaries of real growth. property growth is only of any value if you are downsizing or have more than one property anyway.

A tax on wealth is better than taxing people who have a good income but minimal wealth.

D Evans to note that the tax starts at £2m and is on the additional value over that - so £5000 is correct.

The value of a property has nothing to do with the ability to pay tax based on its value as has been shown many times under the current system.

Either local income tax or a reversion to the much derided but very egalitarian Poll Tax would be more tranparent and not so open to spiteful and envious local councils.

I would go further and double the tax on empty properties and multiply it ten-fold for second and subsequent homes.

I would also increase the taxation based on the number of children in a property as they are a huge cost to the general community in education and healthcare provision.

Trouble is any taxation changes that swing the take from one group or commodity to the next too far too quick is undesirable, unworkable and usually unfair. Witness the ease with which VAT can be swung +/-2.5% (or 14.3% in real terms) or income tax 'nudges' versus these wild schemes.

By all means work these taxes in over 20years so people have a chance of choosing where to direct their assets without life being like a roller coaster. But wait a minute our political system won't allow that. New government = must have radical new policies - all the more so if there's no chance of getting power.

Why not tax wine speculators, art collectors? No let's tax the folks that have paid tens of thousands already in stamp duty - they live in big houses - they can afford it. That's the point folks take their money overseas.

Why wouldn't a simple property capital gains tax work? Oh wait, if property prices don't rise then people won't feel good and so will vote us out. Maybe we should have an upper house that sets the budget and let the politicos faff about with the crap that doesn't matter.

Mansion Tax is clearly a tax of envy.

Would'nt a local income tax be more equitable, especially if it included all property owners even foreign registered, with a minimum sum levied where income is not known?

This tax proposal is typical of this socialist hell hole country.

The rich will never pay a penny of mansion tax as i am sure they have it in companies offshore.

Middle class Britain will pay-as they already do.

All these extra stealth taxes here there and everywhere.

This country is slipping further and further towards pure and simple communism.

The tax would be £5000 on a £2.5m property as there is a threshold of £2m and you would only be taxed on the value of a property above that threshold.

Yes the land value tax does make sense - but it would have to be offset by reductions in income tax - keep what you earn and pay tax on the value that isn't created by you but by land land speculation. Classic George/Ricado.

This is what happens in Hong Kong, Taiwan.

Houses are not liquid assets and are primarily a place to live. Many of these houses have been bought by people who do not spend as much, or more than they earn. Instead we should tax luxuries more heavily such as foreign holidays !!!

The Lib dems used to have a policy to replace council tax by local income tax. So this is an about face ?

And to withdraw higher rate tax relief on pensions is absurd. What about all those pension contributions paid by employers and local authorities, or the pensions paid by taxpayers directly? Quite apart from the principle of NOT double taxing income, how on Earth could one administer this equitably? Would pensioners who might have been higher rate tax payers working for the Government with an unfunded scheme be taxed extra on their pensions ??? And would we include pension contributions to arrive at the gross pay - for example if someone in a final salary scheme is promoted not long before they retire, then actuarially they can be in receipt of HUGE increases in the equivalent pension pot. Very obviously no one has thought through either the principle or the ramifications.

But then this is typical Libdem "policy"

Our taxation system has developed by adding odd bits of to an ever more ricketty and in many ares indefensible system.The establishment of a £10000thheshold is but one area which requires attention.Enormous waste is clearly attributable to the sheer complexity of the system.

Surely our political masters should agree on a cross party basis to appoint three people (not a Committee!) to come up with a simplified system which provides for fairly escalating taxation depending on income and a sales tax(VAT).These could be assisted by any suggestions by the public but the aim must be a compehensive but simple system to sweep away all the current confusion and waste.and produce the necessary income .Clearly this would sweep away the fig leave of National Insurance contributions which is now just another part of income tax.A massive admin saving in one go.

The Lib Dem proposals merely heap additional beauracracy on a overburdened system.We must have simple system which encourages wealth creation not big Government

I agree with d evans - but he(she) doesn't go far enough. It would be only a matter of time before pretty well all property was heavily taxed. Except that owned by the state or MPs.

In a theoretical world, the proposal makes sense. However, our politicians will just use it to rape us for yet more taxes - in addition to present taxes!

Simple answer - YES ! Value is a matter of opinion - armies of valuers, accountants and solicitors disputing figures put forward . Two important points - good brains need putting to productive wealth creation for everyone ( a healthy economy of producers ) so simplify the tax system so people know where they stand and can plan accordingly and lets get all these professionals ( and HMRC staff) into industry rather than shuffling figures and paper . Secondly when will people learn ?You don't make the poor rich by taxing the rich .Quite the opposite . You make the poor dependent on the State and we all know where that leads - more taxes to fund them.

...and please stop calling it a Mansion Tax. I live in a small 3 bed terrace house and am surrounded by non Brits who are now the only ones who can afford to buy houses here.

I've lived here for over 25 years and spent most of that time working 10+ hour days, having holidays spent at home catching up on chores. I educated my daughter privately and paid for health insurance. All the while paying large amounts of tax and national insurance.

I'm getting so fed up with being bunched in with the mega-rich and made to feel "bad"...I worked hard and saved and now I feel an idiot and suspect will be paying much more tax in the coming months to pay for those who chose not to work and those who come to this country and are instantly given houses for themselves and their extended families paid for by me and others like me.

That's not fair... and why is this proposed

Mansion Tax called fair????

Stop subsidising the lazy, reduce the cost of the state and focus on encouraging businesses to get us out of this hole and...

PS ....stop bashing bankers! Yes, I was one some years ago. We worked hard and provided finance for businesses and helped them expand and trade. No, I didn't have a fast car or exotic holidays and I, and most of my peers, gave part of our bonuses to charity each year (in addition to the enormous amount of tax that was taken out before we even saw our bonus cheque).

Just another wheez to extract yet more money from people who have worked hard and prospered due to their efforts and who happen to have benefited from assett price inflation.

As one of the so called middle class workers who works 60-70 hours a week and who pays horrendous levels of tax already this is a sickening idea from a useless enviy ridden politician/party who peddle populist sound bites.

We have to reconise and reward success and business. This Goverment and the noddy social democrate party want to do the opposite. They create nothing - what do they manufacture or export - nothing. What services do they provide - none. They tax and redistribute tax payers money and waste vast sums of it. We need less taxation, less intervention and regulation and less hair brained ideas and fewer politicians.

The unlikely event of a Liberal in power other than possibly in a hung parliament situation makes the concern of mansion tax less likely- unless the labour constipated current government copied it..

OH- they do not have to..Council Tax re banding, its been put off because of the likely backlash from voters. Plenty of Firms would love the Valuation work given current market conditions. The valuation date could be set , as evidence of transactions are needed for comparisons..and then band away- up to 50M

That done ttax is collected as Council Tax- with HMG getting a %. in most cases westminster have to subsidise local Authority anyway.

The rate is set based on local needs and property base valuation. The tax on value set nationally for fairness.

Now there has to be a good point- it is if you pay this Tax

YOUR HOME SHOULD NOT BE TAXED AGAIN AT death {IHT

VINCE grab that and watch the votes rise..