Government grave robbery

 

Taxation, on the living- is theft. Thieving from the deceased represents a whole other layer of wanton avarice on behalf of The State.

The supposed justification for taxation is for the provision of public services. Apparently it's not theft if you get something back, even if you don't want or need it.

The dead don't use public services. At least not today. The Ancient Greeks placed an obol in the mouth of the deceased to pay Charon the ferryman to cross the River Styx to the underworld- at least they got something for their death tax. (They should have had the right to opt-out and refuse the journey or seek alternative ferry providers at market rates regardless.)

So assuming after death we are not presented with a first-class ticket on some sort of heavenly HS2 whisking us away to the next life, inheritance tax is pure theft. As much as the socialists may whine about the need to ensure sufficient public funding, inheritance tax makes up less than 1% of total tax receipts. There is also nothing to prevent an individual making a voluntary contribution to State coffers in the event of their own death, assuming of course that in life they created something to leave behind.

Labour are already signalling an intent to increase death theft. While the detail in the Chancellor's plans will need to wait until the budget, amongst the proposals is the removal of agricultural relief, which currently allows land or pasture that is used to grow crops or to rear animals to be free of inheritance tax.

Such draconian measures would essentially seal the fate of family farms across the country, most of which are already struggling under reams of stifling climate and other regulations. The result will be the handover of yet more of our best agricultural land to house our exploding open-door population, or for solar farms- so we import even more of our food while pretending the carbon emissions no longer exist because they are happening somewhere else. One might be forgiven for suspecting deliberate intent on behalf of government here.

There is also talk of removing exemptions on gifts given while alive and business relief. Currently, gifts given more than seven years before death are tax-exempt, as is passing on a family business. Quite frankly taxing gifts at all is an aberration, and if The State feels it is entitled to take a slice of a family business with each generation, then at the end of each parliament the number of MPs and civil servants should be reduced by the same percentage. It is only fair.

Next Wednesday we'll find out exactly how much more Grave Robber Reeves wants to pinch from us in the next life. Regardless of all the inevitable talk of budgetary "black holes" and "broad shoulders," the theft of a single penny is still theft. The only justifiable rate of inheritance tax is 0%.