Nigel Farage heaps pressure on Tories with bombshell pledge to abolish hated tax rule
Tories will be forced to see off threat from Reform as Nigel Farage attempts to woo voters.
Reform has pledged to abolish inheritance tax for estates worth less than £2 million
This will heap pressure on the Tories to announce their own cut to the levy ahead of the general election on July 4.
Reform’s inheritance tax policy was proposed in a draft manifesto published in February.
There has been uncertainty about which policies will be kept under Nigel Farage’s leadership, which was announced on Monday.
Richard Tice, Reform’s chairman, said today that the original inheritance tax proposal – which Reform says would take 98%t of estates out of the tax – would be kept.
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He said: “Absolutely it will stay in the manifesto. It has got a lot of support. I describe it as a grief tax. The cost of collection and the length of time it is now taking are frankly obscene.
“Even if the Tories say they will do something, they keep hinting that and they haven’t after 14 years. It is one of the reasons no one trusts them on anything.”
The current threshold for inheritance tax is £325,000, although there are some exceptions for family homes.
Reform is also proposing to reduce the rate at which the tax is applied, from the current 40% level to 20%
The Institute for Fiscal Studies has said all parties should give voters as much clarity as possible about their intentions for tax.
Asked if Labour would raise inheritance tax, shadow pensions Secretary Liz Kendall said the party has been “clear” it won’t raise income tax, national insurance contributions or VAT.
She said: “We have been really honest with people: we will not raise taxes on working people. We won’t raise income tax, national insurance contributions or VAT.
“But we have said we will close those tax loopholes, scrap the non-dom tax status to pay for 40,000 extra appointments in the NHS every single week, and we’ve said we’ll get rid of those tax breaks that private schools enjoy to fund 6,500 more teachers on key subjects in our state schools.”
Both Sir Keir Starmer and Rishi Sunak confirmed they did not intend to raise income tax, national insurance or VAT.
Mr Sunak accused Sir Kei of planning a “retirement tax” during a TV debate this week because he was not matching the Tory “triple lock-plus” commitment to increase the personal allowance for pensioners.
“If Labour are elected, pensioners will pay tax,” the Prime Minister said. “I do not think that is right.”
