Shadow chancellor Ed Balls has revealed that a Labour government would fast track a mansion tax through the House of Commons as one of its first acts of the next parliament. BKL tax partner David Whiscombe’s comments on this were quoted in the ICAEW’s Economia magazine.
Balls’ plans were attacked as a “selective wealth tax” by David Whiscombe, tax director at UK200Group firm Berg Kaprow Lewis.
“There may be principled arguments for and against a wealth tax, but it’s difficult to find much to say in favour of a selective wealth tax of this kind,” Whiscombe said.
“How can it possibly be right to levy a wealth tax on someone who owns a single £2m home but not on someone who owns two (or three, or four) £1m homes? Or to tax a relatively modest home in central London but not a Manor in Northumberland? Or to tax a £2m home but not a £20m share portfolio?
“Balls’ selective wealth tax is certainly cheap and simple to collect; but to be acceptable, a tax requires more qualities than these,” he said.
