Taxing the hand that feeds

The Tories have issued a document defending their plan to pay for the £3.5bn cost of their inheritance tax cut by taxing non dom. Still, the only source they can cite for their claim there will be 150,000 non doms to tax is Accountancy Age magazine. That’s because there is no reliable data: the Tories and the Treasury are fighting each other by stabbing in the dark. No one knows how many non doms there are, how much they earn or how many would skedaddle if asked to give £25k a year to a Tory government. I’m relaxed about funding inheritance tax cuts, though. The state will take £553bn this year – savings can be found elsewhere.

It’s a tough topic. But we’re all richer thanks to the phenomenal wealth created, and tax paid, by the City. Yes, some of the salaries make us mortals sick. But if the government is hungry, it should not take a carving knife to the goose which lays the golden eggs.