"We need to hear what the candidates think – beyond the motherhood and apple pie of 'high taxes bad, low taxes good'."
Telegraph: 25th August 2024: Brian Monteith summarises what's been said by the six Conservative leadership candidates on tax to date and poses five questions he believes every candidate needs to answer.
Here are the five questions that each prospective leader of the Conservative Party should address:
Do you accept that freezing tax thresholds and allowances rather than increasing the rates of tax was a dishonest way of increasing revenues and would be ruled out by any future government you might lead?
Rather than talking about reform, or even abolition, of inheritance tax while actually making it worse by freezing allowances, can you give a commitment about what you would actually deliver in a first term of government?
What reforms to income tax would you undertake that restore incentives to work harder and generate more wealth, including tackling anomalies such as the 60pc tax trap and the child benefit trap?
What would be your approach to corporation tax and other taxes on investment, such as stamp duty and capital gains tax?
The self-employed represent the conservative model of self-sufficiency and individual risk-taking – yet were targeted with IR35 and the loan charge. What steps would you take to reverse the assault on the self-employed?