IHT system will not change says Brown
Brown dismisses calls for move away from Inheritance Tax system
Chancellor Gordon Brown has firmly dismissed a suggestion from New Labour
policy gurus that Britain should move from an Inheritance Tax system to a tax on
all capital transfers.
Treasury sources acted quickly to make it clear that the government is not
planning any further changes to the inheritance tax system beyond the crackdown
on inheritance tax avoidance and the higher tax threshold in the Budget.
The idea came from Labour election chief Alan Milburn’s special adviser
Patrick Diamond and Blairite ‘third way’ thinker Anthony Giddens.
He urged a tax net to catch lifetime transfers, as well as those after death,
to tackle growing inequalities in the accumulation of wealth through chance such
as property and land values rising, rather than risk-taking and business
success.