Sir – There is a vast and increasing quasi-feudal inequality of wealth in our country, which no major political party appears to be facing up to. The Conservative Party and UKIP would make it worse. The former would reduce inheritance tax and the latter, ludicrously, would abolish it altogether.
The traditional UK Liberal Party calls for a minimum UK Universal Inheritance (UKUI) of £10,000 for all UK-born UK citizens at the financially responsible age of 25. This would be financed by replacing inheritance tax, including its exemptions for lifetime gifts, agricultural land and business assets, with a 10% Capital Donor tax on all giving and bequeathing capital to UK citizens (40% on giving to non-UK citizens), together with a suitably progressive Accessions Tax on cumulative total lifetime receipt of unearned capital gifts and inheritance.
To ease the introduction and to be fair to adjacent year groups, it should start gradually, with UKUI at £1,000 for 25-year-olds in the first year increasing by that amount for ten years or more. The only time at which it is practical to reduce the inequality of wealth, rather than merely the inequality of income from wealth, is at the point of transfer from each generation to the next. UKUI would start to do this, while at the same time helping student loan repayments and giving capital opportunity to those who don’t go to university. The progressive Accessions Tax would claw back the UKUI from larger inheritances.
Dane Clouston, Oxfordshire Liberal Party , Stadhampton
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