Taxed and regulated to death by clowns

Taxed and regulated to death by clowns

8:38 AM, 10th August 2018, About 6 years ago 7

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The UK now has such a plethora of Regulations that doing business in any sector of the economy is becoming a Task. As regards taxation, the UK has the highest property taxes in the developed world. (source The Telegraph).

We are taxed and regulated to death. This nonsense is to be expected from Comrade Corbyn and Co, but let us be clear we can thank the Tories as well, for driving free enterprise over a cliff. Remember Chancellor Hammond and his Flawed Nat insurance tax for the self employed?

The current crop of politicians are useless. Brexit looms and the rich 1% pay a quarter of all taxes (source the FT).

There are over 100 acts of parliament giving rise to 400 regulations pertaining to the private rented sector. That was not enough, the clowns then weighed in with Selective licensing, Tenancy deposit laws, EPC regs, Section 21 restrictions to name but a few more pieces of restrictive legislation all in the name of protecting tenants. Yes thanks to this garbage rents are already rising (source RICS). Tenant protection,definitely not.

Back to Taxation. The top 10% pay 60% of the tax collected (source FT), but that is not enough. There is talk of further tax rises to fund the NHS. I recently spoke to an NHS auditor who concurred. It is not more cash or higher taxation that is needed, but pragmatic business like reforms which need to be implemented to save the Service.

For the reader unfamiliar with our property tax regime, and considering becoming a landlord. Consider this:

  • You will pay a Stamp duty penalty at purchase
  • Next comes Council tax while you look for a tenant
  • Then pay another tax to your local useless council to allow you to rent your own property
  • Pay HMRC tax on the rent including tax on the gross rent without any deduction for your finance costs
  • When you sell up pay capital gains
  • When you die your kids will be taxed on your estate.

The clowns do not get it. They march on taxing and regulating.

Larry Sweeney


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Comments

Neil Patterson

8:41 AM, 10th August 2018, About 6 years ago

Yep, but I thought they said Landlords had too many tax breaks!

Alison King

10:08 AM, 10th August 2018, About 6 years ago

Forgot to mention licensing. The straw that is breaking the camel's back and driving honest and conscientious landlords out of the business. While all along the real rogue landlords pay none of that and are laughing all the way to the bank because no one is enforcing laws that have been in place for decades.

Susan Robinson

11:06 AM, 10th August 2018, About 6 years ago

Does licensing apply to corporate/social housing landlords or is it simply the prerogative awarded to the PRS?

AA

11:49 AM, 10th August 2018, About 6 years ago

North of the divide - corporate as well. What happens here eventually cascades downwards. We are the lab rats up here.

Mick Roberts

12:24 PM, 10th August 2018, About 6 years ago

Brilliant words. Yes they gone too far.
All of 'em idiots. The country is a big business & to run it should require someone with brains who requires big salary who will deliver value for that salary.
But they put people in who have no clue of business in charge of 60+ million people.
And to top that, all these MP's swap departments every 6 months & then profess to be expert in the new role with no experience.
This Nottingham Selective Licensing. Everything we told the council 5 months ago would happen & they said not, well it has happened. We know, we rent houses, they don't.
Same as Universal Credit UC. How many more times does 1000 people have to do on the news to say I'm homeless & hungry 'cause my UC stopped, for the Tory plonkers half a brain no common sense to stop saying It is working, all is fine, more are working.

user_17131

15:28 PM, 10th August 2018, About 6 years ago

Obfuscated Data

Peter Fredericks

17:33 PM, 12th August 2018, About 6 years ago

I wholly agree but matters are made worse by the retrospective nature of some of the changes, especially Section 24. The Tories have been and remain utterly abysmal as a party of business and government, devoid of true principle and saying almost anything to curry favour in certain quarters. A Corbyn government might be worse, assuming that the Labour party does not split before the next election.
These tax changes also take no account of geographical factors outside the over-heated housing market in London and parts of the South East. Some of our stuff is in a part of the North East where rentals have actually fallen over the last 10 years and capital values are down by as much as 50% in some former industrial areas, so we cannot sell that bit of the portfolio other than at substantial loss ... we're hit by the double disaster of a parasitic and virtually useless Labour-run County Council and Tory-controlled Westminster government that doesn't give a fig for the North East anyway.

But until we get a proper one-person one EQUAL vote electoral system, the Tories and Labour will game play the First Past the Post electoral system, which can grant them a majority of seats in Parliament on a minority of the votes. The system stinks just like the rotten established political class who (largely) support it.

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