So the government is floating the idea of abolishing IHT. Last year the tax raised just over £7bn, and we have to wonder where that sum would be made up. Presumably from that amorphous and undefined source known as "existing departmental budgets" - which were cited yesterday as one of the sources of the money which will finance the public sector pay awards. Not a single minister yesterday could say what that meant.

Personally I say "bring it on", but it's hard not to think that if Labour announced an unfunded tax cut, the conservatives would be merciless in hailing it as another example of Labour irresponsibility.

I suspect like most people I hate IHT and abolishing it would be popular. However right here and now I don't think this is the best use of a tax cut.

I would prefer either a cut in basic rate tax or better still an increase in the tax allowance for low paid or a cut in VAT.

I think the reasoning is that the £7 billion would be spent in the economy by those who inherited it, rather than it being fed into the Government's tax intake, where it gets lost on various unnecessary schemes. I was in a branch of a local bank yesterday and overheard a bloke behind me talking to a staff member. He needed to transfer over £400kin tax to HMRC due to an inheritance tax bill. Now I appreciate that means he probably still had over £600k to play around with but an extra £400k in the economy wouldn't be a bad thing. Basically the public would be better at spending the money rather than the government,

I just opened a metro bank account to put a jar of shrapnel in so I don’t pay a charge. They have a counting machine in branch. Straight to the till today. Guy helped me with the coin counter and money straight into account as drawable. Open seven days a week and opened account last week and card made while I waited. 40 minutes tops. Also open Saturday and Sunday.
So far so good.

In the event of my demise, my family would be subject to IHT, so you would think I would be in favour of abolishing it, which I am not
I have read many times about it being unfair, it’s being taxed twice, absolute nonsense a great deal of wealth is held in property, which has increased in value, not because I have worked harder than others, it’s because of a shortage of properties in certain areas, my property, I built it, is now worth 20 plus x more than cost, my kids would still share £600,000 from every million £s, balance that with some young people who are working hard for say £15,000 a year and paying tax, my kids did not work hard for it, personally I think it’s fair that IHT should be paid at a reasonable rate