More on the English Inheritance Tax

Earlier on this blog, I discussed the English inheritance tax.  The tax is currently undergoing heated debate as reported in Patrick Wintour & Will Woodward, Election battle lines drawn as Tories defend tax plans, Guardian, Oct. 2, 2007.  Here are some excerpts from this article:

The Conservatives’ flagship policy on inheritance tax was under sustained attack last night as independent experts and a Treasury analysis raised questions over whether it could be funded properly by hitting a wealthy elite with a flat-rate charge of £25,000. Labour claimed the hole in the Tory figures could be as large as £3bn.

Amid new signs that an election could be announced next Monday, George Osborne, the shadow chancellor, sought to regain the political initiative by announcing that the threshold for inheritance tax would be raised from £300,000 to £1m. * * *

The cuts, he told his party’s annual conference in Blackpool, would be funded by charging a levy from so-called non-domiciles, such as foreign City workers and the super-rich, who register offshore and avoid paying tax. To rapturous applause, Mr Osborne said: “We will take 10 million people out of these taxes on aspiration. For millions of people, today sounds the death knell for death taxes.”

Special thanks to Joel Dobris (Professor of Law, UC Davis School of Law) for bringing this article to my attention.