News International on IHT
Inheritance tax makes little old ladies homeless and its all the fault of gay MPs according to The Telegraph. Despite New Labour approval from Stephen Byers, The Times has failed to jump on the bandwagon. Irwin Stelzer, no less, says this is all nonsense.
Janet Daley gets schooled by readers of her column. They point out that the sisters are unlikely to be hit by a £236,000 bill (IHT on the whole house) but instead £61,000 (IHT on a half share) and that with a house worth £875,000 as collateral that shouldn’t be a problem. The rest of the fried logic caused less fuss.
Posted: September 17th, 2006 under Unsorted.
Comments: 2
Comments
Comment from Sophia
Time: September 18, 2006, 9:05 am
According to the detailed reporting in the Times, the house is not even worth that much. Apparently the house is valued at £425,000, the value of their 30 acres brings it to £550,00 and the rest is made up of ‘other assets’. It’s hard to see how they would be forced out of their house by a £61,000 tax bill.
Apart from inheritance tax, this raises serious issues about the standard of reporting surrounding this story.
Comment from Jack
Time: September 18, 2006, 9:14 am
If they only owned the house and ownership was shared there wouldn’t even be any IHT liability.
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