Re: Income distribution [and growth]

["John M. Legge" <jlegge@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

The British Labour government of the 1970s introduced a capital transfer tax
(CTT) with these properties, and apart from certain (modest) exempt gifts
each taxpayer was taxed on their lifetime receipt of gifts and inheritances.
Mrs Thatcher scrapped the CTT and restored the old death duty system,
including a total exemption for gifts where the donor survived for five
years.  Blair/Brown have left Mrs Thatcher's scheme in place.

JML

> -----Original Message-----
> From: pkt-owner@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:pkt-owner@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]On
> Behalf Of Bruce McFarling
>
>
> The only clear way to break down the development of an
> aristocracy of wealth is to switch death duties from
> the estate to the recipient.  Syd Carroll has proposed:
>
> (1) $1m gifts received tax free
> (2) 2nd $1m taxed at a 25% gift rate
> (3) 3rd $1m taxed at a 50% gift rate
> (4) 4th $1m taxed at a 75% gift rate
> (5) All additional taxed at a 100% gift rate
>
> That would eliminate the level of wealth holdings that
> are self-perpetuating over multiple generations.  And,
> after all, it is a voluntary death duty, since as long
> as the will of the deceased hands out the funds in $1m
> blocks, it would be gift tax free, unless of course
> some of the beneficiaries had already received sizable
> bequests.
>
>