In a brilliant move, based on solid maffematics, old Chancellor, George Osborne, raised the rate of ‘stamp duty’, the tax you have to pay when you buy a house. Its a basic kind of tax: you’re spending money, we want some. Goes back to Robin Hood days. Its maffia-esque. A deal is being done, by anyone, anywhere, I want a piece. Fair enough. And so George calculated that by raising stamp duty by 5%, he would rake in loads of money to the national coffers.

Because sometimes people live in a deluded and simplistic world in which ‘all things stay the same unless I change them for my benefit’. George failed to realise that, basically, people would just stop buying houses at the same rate that they did before. The tax had scared buyers off, priced them out or made them find ways to avoid the tax. The ex-Chancellor failed to comprehend evolutionary changes. Predators refine techniques, prey speed up, dig holes, climb higher as a consequence.

And thus the housing market, particularly in London, has slumped (relatively) and people aren’t moving home as they did before. So instead of a ‘tax windfall’, there is a £10billion deficit projected over the next 5 years.

Had stamp duty remained at its previous, lower rate, the exchequer would be richer. Its all about greed. And stupidity.

I don’t mind tax. Its kind’a essential. Something Donald Trump would disagree with. But Trump is a selfish and sociopathic individual with no empathy and even less common sense. He sees it as ‘clever’ to pay no taxes. Yet is happy to spend zillions on his up-coming ‘infrastructure’ projects. Where will that money come from if no-one pays taxes because they’re so ‘clever’?

But there are always limits. When tax gets ridiculously high and punitive, people stop paying it. More is sometimes less. When the Labour government put high rate income tax up to 95%, people just moved away. Left the country. With a resultant drop in the tax income. That was clever.

And history repeats. Ok, George did what he did in the main part to counter Labour’s proposal’s for its ‘mansion tax’, but still, you’d kind’a hope that governments would be able to work out projections and scenarios of likely outcomes. They employ enough fucking people to do so.

None of which affects me much personally. Other than in general principle and the fact that all these special taxes are, in essence, taxes on London. They don’t grow houses elsewhere that fetch sufficient premiums to reach the top tax rate. And again; if you keep taxing something, IT WILL GO AWAY. London won’t exactly up sticks and move to Grimsby, but if companies, and their employees, will get a better deal elsewhere, better lifestyle, greater disposable income, then they’ll go. And as London generates 30% of Britain’s tax, that would be good for no-one.

Nuf with the fucking tax, already.

Happy Friday

A xxxx