The Labour Party sure did get left with an awful economic inheritance by the Conservative Party, what they assumed to be a £8 billion shortfall turned into £22 billion once they lifted the bonnet on the public finances and saw the extent of the damage, and now Treasury officials are mentioning it could be as high as £40bn once the promised payments made by the outgoing Conservatives are taken into account.
The problem Labour have is that they need to plug that gap before they can even begin implementing their plans to restore the public services to rude health after 14 years of awful right wing ideology ran everything into the ground and a Government can only improve the economics by bringing in more or paying out less.
The latter was the Conservative choice and by them taking an austerity hatchet to public services, things quickly fell apart and despite slashing and cutting at everything while pushing tax to the highest it has been for 70 years, they left not only every department poorer but also the nations ledger, so what are the new Labour Party to do?
They have ruled out a return to austerity, that never worked last time obviously, so they are instead looking to increase the amount they bring in but their manifesto pledge was to not increase taxes on working people in terms of income tax, national insurance and VAT so it is expected the Chancellor, Rachel Reeves, will announce an increase on what they have called 'unearned income'.
Increases in Inheritance Tax and Capital Gains Tax are widely expected to be announced on Wednesday and i see no problem with that, as the name implies Inheritance Tax is paid on the value of your estate when you die and includes property, money, investments and possessions and is currently taxed at 40% on anything over £325,000 which is where the smart money is going on what will be changed, with the £325,000 figure being reduced as well as the 7 year rule for 'giving away' assets increased to 10 years.
Capital Gain is paid on anything bought and sold for a profit such as shares, land or gold and is currently taxed at 10% or 20% and hints have been heavilly dropped that these percentages will be increased, possibly in line with the sellers tax rate as well as 'loopholes' which are used to reduce the tax rate dropped.
Taxing 'Unearned wealth' is the line Labour keep repeating and both of these are unearned and would not hit most 'ordinary' families such as a rise in the income tax rate, increase in National Insurance or a reduction in Personal Allowances would so go for it Labour and lets hope it raises enough to get the country out of the funk of the Conservatives disastrous right wing ideology which did hit ordinary families as a look at your payslip bears out.