RAPID RESPONSES
National interest
[Re: Taxing homes more isn’t the answer, yesterday]
If we have to sell the land from under our feet, let’s at least extract the maximum possible price from those willing to buy it. We haven’t exhausted the ability or desire of foreign nationals to pay for UK property. Not to extract the maximum price through appropriate taxation is simply throwing money out of our already empty national coffers.
Carl Gombrich
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Empty promises
Some investors leave their properties empty while we have an acute shortage of housing in London. Any tax which makes this less attractive is fine by me. However, the argument that a mansion tax would hit too few homes and raise too little money is itself also very persuasive. Instead, we should close the stamp duty loophole and implement an annual carrying cost on empty super-prime properties.
Mike Fitzroy