And the idea of moving to a ‘Lifetime Gift Tax’ IS good but inherently unworkable. It imagines a world where the rich firstly, declare their taxable income properly and secondly, don’t attempt to find loopholes as simple as having their loved ones ‘buy’ assets at knockdown rates to avoid being a taxable event. This is just off the top of my head, I’m sure that after another few minutes I could come up with another few amusing wheezes to get the rich off with paying THIS tax as well.

What must be remembered is that the bulk of tax revenue in this country comes from PAYE Tax/NIC from employees paying the lower tax. Higher tax, SA, COTAX etc are, relatively speaking, minimal. the more money you have, the less you pay as a percentage (not just because of the NIC UEL either!) Clever accountants, schemes to avoid tax that ‘aren’t actually illegal’ (yet) and flat out fraud by those earning so much they don’t need to do it all contribute to the burden placed on the lower paid and the forced austerity on society’s most vulnerable. But, you may say, what about Working Tax Credit (WTC)?? WTC is not a boost or a leg up for lower paid workers, it DOESN’T help single mums and dads, low paid workers, part timers or any other worker. WTC is for employers. It means employers can pay their workers less than the market might otherwise demand. It ensures that the sting is taken out of even collective bargaining as even the poorest paid can have a safety net. What SHOULD happen is a market where employers HAVE to use decent wages as a way to compete for employees, they don’t. Wages are kept down artificially with this subsidy for bad employers. On top of that the WTC (and CTC too) system was designed by the Nudge Unit (or whatever they actually call themselves) It’s so complicated that accountants can’t get to grips with it, it uses tricky language to mislead applicants and ensure they end up overpaid through no fault of their own and then don’t dispute it (that’s Tax Credit talk for an appeal against your overpayment) If you use the WRONG terminology it ensures you run out of time to disagree about it and end up having to repay money you don’t owe. It’s made deliberately unclear and even the advertising and call centre will get a couple of basic pieces of advice wrong too – again leading to overpayments. All of this leads to applicants getting fed up and not applying. Sounds like a real Tory wheeze? Nope, this one’s on Labour. Of course the Tories picked up the baton and went with Universal Credit, just as bad, essentially extending the misery to others.

Many may think these unintended consequences, they’re NOT. They were well warned in advance by HMRC and went ahead anyway. Governments ONLY act deliberately. They care about the next vote in the house and the next GE, end of.

If ANY party thinks they can replace the Inheritance Tax and replace it with something that a) sounds good and b) doesn’t only NOT hurt their donors but actually benefits them then they will act swiftly to implement it. The only thing stopping them is being torn apart in the eyes of their own voters..