 
 {"id":3287,"date":"2025-07-09T09:13:25","date_gmt":"2025-07-09T09:13:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.glentree.co.uk\/blog\/?p=3287"},"modified":"2025-07-09T19:45:03","modified_gmt":"2025-07-09T19:45:03","slug":"note-to-mr-starmer-dont-come-first-in-a-stupid-contest-a-wealth-tax-in-the-autumn-budget-will-be-a-disaster","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.glentree.co.uk\/blog\/2025\/07\/note-to-mr-starmer-dont-come-first-in-a-stupid-contest-a-wealth-tax-in-the-autumn-budget-will-be-a-disaster\/","title":{"rendered":"Note to Mr. Starmer: Don\u2019t come first in a stupid contest!  A Wealth Tax in the autumn Budget will be a disaster!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-3288\" src=\"https:\/\/www.glentree.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/nick-fewings-SoqG9RWd_FA-unsplash-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"584\" height=\"390\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.glentree.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/nick-fewings-SoqG9RWd_FA-unsplash-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.glentree.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/nick-fewings-SoqG9RWd_FA-unsplash-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.glentree.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/nick-fewings-SoqG9RWd_FA-unsplash-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.glentree.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/nick-fewings-SoqG9RWd_FA-unsplash-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/www.glentree.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/nick-fewings-SoqG9RWd_FA-unsplash-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https:\/\/www.glentree.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/nick-fewings-SoqG9RWd_FA-unsplash-450x300.jpg 450w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 584px) 100vw, 584px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>After all the debacle around winter fuel payments, the welfare reforms, the two-child benefit cap, the \u00a328billion green investment promise and now, maybe the non-dom issue, team Starmer\/Reeves have made more U-turns than a dodgem at the fun fair!<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>With the exodus of non-doms from the UK, it is evident that the Treasury simply doesn\u2019t understand the financial dynamics of cosmopolitan London, particularly as it applies to these wealthy weather makers.\u00a0 Foolishly, in their forecast, the OBR thought that this measure would raise \u00a36-9billion for the Treasury but actually, this will be a net cost.<\/p>\n<p>Under pressure from the City, Reeves is now considering moderating the more draconian elements of the non-dom changes, so-as-to stem the tide of these wealth creators.<\/p>\n<p>If the UK is to attract inward investment, this is the antithesis of what a competent government should do.<\/p>\n<p>Having upset pensioners, farmers, industry and Labour backbenchers, hey ho, the U-turns have now left a \u00a330billion black hole in the UK accounts, if they are to keep to their \u2018fiscal rules\u2019.<\/p>\n<p>And what do you imagine that \u2018Tweedle Dum and Tweedle Dee\u2019 are cooking up for the upper middle classes in the autumn Budget?\u00a0 Yes, you guessed it, let\u2019s slap on a nice hefty wealth tax of 2% above \u00a310million\u2026 you couldn\u2019t make it up.<\/p>\n<p>Lord (Windbag) Kinnock, if anyone remembers, was sent to Europe to be the whistleblower of the gluttonous expenses enjoyed by the MEPs but ended up \u2018turning turtle\u2019 by joining the feeding frenzy himself.\u00a0 Not only did he stuff his saddlebags with riches but encouraged his wife and son to join the fray. Why not?\u00a0 It\u2019s a jamboree after all!<\/p>\n<p>Bless him, he is strongly advocating a wealth tax which is drawn directly from politics of envy and let\u2019s face it, kicking the rich is a very gratifying sport to the left-wing zealots of the Labour Party.<\/p>\n<p>Hasn\u2019t the government learnt anything from the non-dom disaster?<\/p>\n<p>As we all know, there is nothing more mobile than the fabulously rich and they have not hesitated to \u2018pick up sticks\u2019 and take their wealth to other more welcoming fiscal climes abroad.<\/p>\n<p>I am going to scream if I hear the overused expression \u2018let the broadest shoulders bear the most burden\u2019! Lest we forget, 1% of the taxpayers pay 30% of the total tax take and there cannot be anything more fiscally progressive than this.<\/p>\n<p>Yes, the \u2018asset owners\u2019 have gained wealth over time (made up of property and shares), but this applies to all demographic groups, not just the uber wealthy.<\/p>\n<p>A wealth tax was introduced in France and ignominiously abolished in 2018.\u00a0 In Germany it was repealed in 1997 and in Sweden 2007.\u00a0 The main reason for its failure in all of these countries is that it drove wealthy individuals to leave, and it was too costly to manage, whilst generating very low revenue for the respective Treasuries.<\/p>\n<p>In fact, in France, 12,000 millionaires left between 2000 and 2016, and you would think \u2018Rachel from Accounts\u2019, would know this.<\/p>\n<p><span lang=\"EN-US\">Whilst Switzerland do have sustainable modest wealth tax, the balance of their taxes, i.e., Inheritance Tax, Capital Gains Tax and Income Tax, are either very low or non-existent.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>The German courts ruled that the wealth tax violated the principal of equal taxation.<\/p>\n<p>And despite all of this, the \u2018goons\u2019 Starmer\/Reeves are seriously contemplating this measure as their \u2018get out of jail\u2019 card, in the autumn Budget \u2026 go figure!<\/p>\n<p>The \u2018tin-eared\u2019 Mr Starmer has lurched from one self-induced crisis to another and according to Sir John Curtis &#8211; the pollster extraordinaire &#8211; he occupies the greatest level of disillusionment over time &#8211; at minus 43% &#8211; since polling records began and as we speak, is trawling new depths of disgruntlement.<\/p>\n<p>By the looks of things, he doesn\u2019t communicate with the rest of his Party very well, he is never in the \u2018tearoom\u2019 canvassing opinion from his colleagues but instead, locks himself in a bunker with his henchman, Morgan McSweeney, no doubt plotting the next debacle.<\/p>\n<p>In the autumn, the government is likely to break its manifesto pledge on taxation, which will ensure that it upsets all the demographic groups, not just some of them, as at present.<\/p>\n<p>If you thought that the Tories were inept, the Labour Party, under our Prime Minister, is in a class of its own, in this respect. If it wasn\u2019t so serious you could laugh, but the stench of failure is ubiquitous.<\/p>\n<p>Back at the ranch, at Glentree, using our specialist skills, we have managed to sell \u00a360million of residential property in the last three months.\u00a0 Having weathered four recessions already, we have the experience of circumnavigating the many obstacles that exist in this sector. Having said this, I can tell you that it isn\u2019t easy trading without a feel-good factor, which the government has shown a great propensity to extinguish.<\/p>\n<p>We are seasoned veterans in this business and although our brethren in the estate agency industry are moaning and groaning, primarily due to the plummeting number of deals, our canny buyers see it as an opportunity to purchase plum residential properties, on the cheap.<\/p>\n<p>Can you blame them?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>After all the debacle around winter fuel payments, the welfare reforms, the two-child benefit cap, the \u00a328billion green investment promise and now, maybe the non-dom issue, team Starmer\/Reeves have made more U-turns than a dodgem at the fun fair!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3287","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-viewpoint"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.glentree.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3287","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.glentree.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.glentree.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.glentree.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.glentree.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3287"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.glentree.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3287\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3310,"href":"https:\/\/www.glentree.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3287\/revisions\/3310"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.glentree.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3287"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.glentree.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3287"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.glentree.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3287"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}