In Luke 12 we get the principle of ‘to whom much is given much is expected’ and this underlies the idea of progressive taxation–the wealthy pay more.
But because of fixed indirect taxes and tax avoidance/evasion on income tax, UK tax is less than progressive.
So let’s tax residential property. It can’t be avoided–you can’t hide a house, it could be cheap to collect–collected with council tax, it would discourage buy to let and homes as investment, taxes on wealth creation like VAT could be reduced and it would be progressive, socially and regionally.
Thesis Background
--Ian studied history at Cambridge and has been involved in the work of L'Abri Fellowship and Christian Heritage.--
The tax could be based on a percentage of the value of the house and paid annually: a £1M house and above could pay at a rate of 1%, so £10,000 for a £1M house, and rising with the value of the house ; a £500,000 house and above , at the rate of 1/2 %, so £2.500 for a £500,000 house and a house less than £500,000 at a rate of 1/4%, so that a £100,000 flat would pay £500. The big exception could be non-earners, like retired people and the disabled who could be exempt 50% of the tax. Another possibility would be to have a 10% exemption for each child in the house so as to help families.
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