Inheritance Tax penalises aspiration, punishes hard work and gives the state powers to take away a person’s life savings when they pass away.
It’s also a tax on earnings and assets that have already been taxed as hard-working families have their income taxed, are taxed on the assets they then buy and are taxed yet again when wanting to pass them on to their loved ones.
As well as the unfairness of this system of multiple layers of taxation, there’s a personal and emotional impact on many. While families are still grieving, they are forced to tally up the assets they own and surrender a large chunk of it to the state.
Instead of those assets being handed down to children and grandchildren to support their futures, they are gobbled up by the state.
Savings, property and possessions owned are all at risk of ending up propping up the Exchequer rather than helping a family member save for a deposit, pay off student loans or have the funds to start their own business.
With families facing this level of taxation, they also lose the incentive to save when the state threatens to take so much of it away.
This is why inheritance tax is hated by so many in principle and why it needs to be reformed or scrapped.
But the fact that more families are being forced and dragged into paying this tax as inheritance tax thresholds are being frozen for the next few years has made the case for change more pressing.
The Office of Budget Responsibility is forecasting the money raised by inheritance tax will increase to almost £10bn in 2029. That’s billions of pounds being taken away from families.
As Conservatives, we believe in promoting economic freedoms and giving people more control over their lives and their money, and that must include the freedom to control what happens to the future of the assets and savings they’ve worked hard to acquire.
We must press ahead with reforms, cuts or abolition of this unfair tax before the next General Election to show hardworking aspirational families that the Conservatives are on their side.
