My Interview with Talk TV

Please see my interview with Talk TV where we discussed the need for tax cuts, scrapping IR35 and inheritance tax

You can find it between 2:09:01 and 2:19:00

 

43 Comments

  1. Mark B
    June 6, 2023

    Good morning.

    Inheritance Tax is a biggie for many, with that money that has already been taxed looking to be taxed again. And just like Stamp Duty / Tax I would like to ask the question as to why this is ? What has government done to earn this money ?

    As someone else pointed out – Government sees the taxpayer as a sort of ATM (Ca$hcow). But I see government as nothing but a latter day Robber Baron.

    1. Dave Andrews
      June 6, 2023

      Shouldn’t those who voted for borrow and waste governments all their life have to pay for their profligacy via taxes?
      What has the next generation done to deserve the National Debt they inherit?
      If people were charged their proportion of the debts the government they voted for racked up, how would that influence voting patterns?

    2. graham1946
      June 6, 2023

      ‘Money that has already been taxed’

      In fact all taxes, except income tax are taxes on already taxed money. VAT, Council Tax, petrol tax (with VAT on the tax as well), road tax, everything you can think of, so that argument is hardly valid.

      I am not against tax cutting, obviously, but if the government has money to spare, it would be better to raise the income tax allowances so everyone gets a go, rather than those with money already and money saved would go into the economy rather than some bank account or a bigger house. The poor spend all the money they get, the rich don’t, they mainly hoard it and hide it from the tax man. The super rich aren’t affected anyway with their expensive tax accountants etc.

  2. Gabe
    June 6, 2023

    Well all sensible stuff JR but clearly Sunak, Hunt, Gove, Dowden, Shapps, Hands and most of your party… have completely the opposite tax to death, expensive intermittent energy, open door to low skilled immigration, currency debase and regulate to death agenda.

    So yet more hot air from Sunak on migrants but only telling us all that is wrong with the system. We all know what is totally wrong with the system Sunak yet still you fail to withdraw from the ECHR. So why have your done nothing? What we want to know Sunak is why the Tories have been in power for 13 years (& nearly four years with a very large majority) yet nothing sensible has been done? The time for hot air expired many years ago Sunak.

    1. Peter
      June 6, 2023

      Gabe,

      Correct. The discussions on here and articles in The Daily Telegraph etc. have no impact on the government. They see no danger of being unseated before the next election and donā€™t care what happens after it.

      Even violence of the gilet jaune French variety is not a problem in this country. The only protests are for woke stuff which the government donā€™t mind anyway.

      1. Peter
        June 6, 2023

        Nice Summer jacket Sir John Redwood !

        The media go into great detail on Sunakā€™s footwear. Most people would not care if he wore handmade shoes costing thousands of pounds. He is a rich man.

        What people do care about is his policies. Trading down to cheaper footwear will not remove discontent about his current performance.

    2. glen cullen
      June 6, 2023

      Correct – its self evident that the Tory party is split with the current leadership following the policies of ‘new-labour’ ….the mens in grey suits can’t seem to do anything to return the party to Tory policies or maybe they’re supportive of the new regime

      1. Mickey Taking
        June 6, 2023

        Forget the smoke filled rooms, sandwiches and beer. Concern for the workers and how to justify wage rises.
        This lot lounge round the fine panelled wood ex-smoking room, comparing old port or a nice bottle of shampoo but stocks running low, views of the manicured lawn and heated swimming pool. Concerns on private jet travel, a daughter’s ponies, and Eton fees. How to dress up tax relief for their supporters.?

    3. Lifelogic
      June 6, 2023

      Sunak to me comes across as all hot air, spin, patently dishonest PR but with zero substance or sensible action and a compass 180 degrees out on every issue. Particularly with his pathetic spin on migration, the green jobs, net zero, rip off energy and climate alarmism and even more so with appalling Windsor Framework lunacy. He is not even good at Spin.

      1. glen cullen
        June 6, 2023

        I don’t blame Sunak because no one in the cabinet said no, no one in the backbenches said no, no one in the party said no ….only the membership said no and they don’t count
        Sunak is PM by consent of the party

      2. Mark B
        June 6, 2023

        He’s perfect for the job then šŸ˜‰

  3. DOM
    June 6, 2023

    The existential problems facing Britain go far beyond the policy changes recommended in this interview. For example, Labour and their union backers (and activists) push for Marxist inspired UBI that seeks to destroy the link between work and income (pay) has the capacity to destroy private sector capacity, destroy the tax base and usher in State totalitarianism in which State dependency is used to dictate and control private action.

    These left-wing think-tank ideas will also become a magnet for millions of migrants who will rush to this nation thinking a pot of gold is there for the taking. UBI will destroy this nation. The Left know how to play the game by hiding behind the lie of social justice, equality and compassion…

    ESG and the erronously named ‘social justice’ movement is the driving force behind the State sanctioned racism and bigotry of the Left and is undermining commerce eg Target, Disney, CBI..it is a poison built on lies, hate and allegations made on zero evidence

    The fascist Left now control everything while Tory politicians live in dreamland going over issues that have become party political fodder

    1. Sir Joe Soap
      June 6, 2023

      Yes the bricks are pretty well in place. The NHS as an health service to the world, a property free-for-all where having any spare room is first portrayed as taking away from the “poor and disaffected” then white privilege will mean we need to give even our own space up. Transport only allowed within confines and heavy fines for going into “zones” which aren’t clearly marked, particularly around airports which become the privilege of the elite. Burning anything is seen as offensive. Tax on property and wealth, as well as inheritance tax, is a given.
      So far as Conservatives go, this interview is really a sideshow. Sunak will be pleased to hear this, and promise these sorts of changes, but will either lose the next election or for some bizarre reason win and completely forget he mentioned anything of the sort.

    2. Christine
      June 6, 2023

      Well said.

  4. Mike Wilson
    June 6, 2023

    Your comment about inheritance tax ā€˜letā€™s have a discussion before the next electionā€™ made me laugh. As if anything you promise before the next election will be implemented! I remember a previous promise to raise it to a million pounds.

    1. Berkshire Alan
      June 6, 2023

      Yes Mike, that promise was 15 years ago back in 2008, Sunak has already said no tax allowance rises, all to be fixed until 2028, so it will be 20 years at least.
      Fiscal drag is the dishonest and stealthy way of raising tax income.
      All tax allowances should be automatically index linked to inflation on an annual basis.

    2. Mickey Taking
      June 6, 2023

      and the protection from using one’s estate to fund car home need.
      and the promise to build more homes.
      and the promise of Britain is open for business.
      and the promise of ‘lower tax for working people’.
      and the promise of 6,000 more GPs.
      Gove pledging to “end free movement [and] introduce an Australian-style points-based system for immigration”
      We will make government, politics and public services much more open and transparent.
      he bedrock of this new economic model will be the stability and low interest rates that come from a credible plan to reduce our record budget deficit.
      -cap public sector pensions above Ā£50,000.
      -cut Ministersā€™ pay by 5 per cent, followed by a five year freeze.
      -reduce the number of MPs by 10 per cent.
      08.40.

  5. Mike Wilson
    June 6, 2023

    Ahh, you said we need a ā€˜national auditā€™ of the tax system. Again, one has to smile. This from a politician who admitted a while ago that under Cameron and Osborne the tax legislation went up by a notional 5,000 A4 pages.

  6. agricola
    June 6, 2023

    Your ideas are good, but the chances of implementing them via a consocialist cabinet are long gone. Anything Sunak does prior to the next election will be interpreted as a bribe. The only plus he has is that the opposition are seen to be worse. Yesterdays flying photo op to Dover could be very embarrasing for him once the High moves east and the Channel looses its wobbly tendencies. The only opposition to illegal boat crossings is weather, the reception arrangements are just resting for the moment.

  7. Cuibono
    June 6, 2023

    Oh I do have trouble finding interviews on these video/radio whatsits!!
    All taxation is theft anyway.
    It IS!
    There are definitely no such things as UFOsā€¦.
    They were/are just next on the ā€œlittle listā€ after mass immigration, a pandemic and climate changeā€¦
    All the better to terrify us with.
    JR ALWAYS does an excellent interview.
    If the Left had its way every single one of these cracks in the Overton Window would be firmly sealed by now!

    1. Mickey Taking
      June 6, 2023

      People used to claim reptiles body morphed into humans….they could be right.
      Could we design a test prior to allowing them into Westminster?

      1. BMargaret
        June 7, 2023

        Eons to evolve Mick…

  8. Cuibono
    June 6, 2023

    I would like to know ( and I daresay I never will) to what extent this leftist danger sneaked up on true blue tories.
    And also WHY over the years have sane, stable people ( many in my family) cheered on what is basically a suicidal route.
    And roughly, brutally excluded and excoriated warning voices ( like mine).
    (I have never altered my mind regarding lefty nonsenseā€¦
    WHY did that boy get away with eating the apple on the Infants School Nature Table just because he was poor? And as for those papier mache house-shaped charity boxesā€¦grrrrrrr!)
    So when were the warning bells heededā€¦if at all?

    1. Mark B
      June 6, 2023

      Because time and time again people have been fooled into believing the alternative would be worse. It can’t be, not with a Tory party happy to copy and fulfil Socialist dreams.

      https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-42100126

      1. Mickey Taking
        June 6, 2023

        Time to suck it and see, will the electorate make that decision?

  9. a-tracy
    June 6, 2023

    I believe that working in the public sector with taxpayer-guaranteed final salary pensions leads to the government and candidate governments’ crazy ideas to steal people’s hard-earned savings or home investments; people who don’t have access to a final salary guaranteed income in retirement have to squirrel away and save their money to draw down when ill, retired or out of work, they invest in doing up their properties whilst working so there is less to do in retirement. Defined contribution pensions lose too much money to trust them, our compulsory workplace pensions are doing really poorly and the government just dips into private pension savings whenever they want to.

    Public sector pensioners can blow their net income; they don’t have to squirrel away the same because they know what they will be living on when they finish work, and their kids get the benefits of that each year.

    1. Mark B
      June 6, 2023

      There clearly is an imbalance of power between the Private and Public Sectors, with the Public Sector holding all the cards and fleecing the other for all its worth.

      Some parasites live in symbiosis with the host, taking just enough to survive and not kill the the host. No such luck with the Public Sector who will drain every drop of life out of its host.

  10. glen cullen
    June 6, 2023

    Under the UN International Law of Armed Conflict & the Geneva Convention it is illegal and a war crime to attack DAMS, dykes and nuclear electrical generating stations.
    And yet we let Russia get away with it
    And our politicians tell us that the world will end if we don’t adopt the 2025 ban on central boiler heating and the 2030 ICE ban

  11. Christine
    June 6, 2023

    What we need to do is shine a light on the tax affairs of politician’s and celebrities because I expect they use every loop hole going to avoid paying any form of tax. It always amazes me how little the rich and powerful leave in their will. If only we had some investigative journalists. We are not all in this together.

    1. Mickey Taking
      June 6, 2023

      to busy tracking celebs to want to do real useful work.

  12. Elli Ron
    June 6, 2023

    Sunak has bribed the ERG nearly out of existence, I will blame him and Graham Brady for us losing the next election, losing Brexit and bringing Corbyn (Rayner) to #10.

    1. David
      June 6, 2023

      I’d say that ‘Starmer policies’ bear no relation to ‘Corbyn policies’. Starmer seems to want global top-down government and said openly that he prefers Davos to Westminster. See the Al Jazeera documentary on the internal coup that removed Corbyn from power.

      1. Mark B
        June 6, 2023

        +1

  13. Bill brown
    June 6, 2023

    Sir JR

    I’m sure you got the message through with an average of 40200 viewership according to the BBC of May 2022.

    1. EU fan
      June 6, 2023

      The BBC rarely have Sir John on their channel so your carping is of little use Bill.

    2. a-tracy
      June 8, 2023

      Perhaps he should always ensure he has his http://www.johnredwoodsdiary.com sign behind him on the tv screen to attract more viewers to his daily blog Bill.

  14. Enough+Already
    June 6, 2023

    JR says, “we’ve lost 700k people by being too greedy on IR35”. I’d like to know where that figure comes from? And yes I agree, IR35 has been a disaster for me personally.

    1. iain gill
      June 7, 2023

      IR35 has given the big outsourcers massive unfair advantages, as they can pay their staff expenses tax free, which IR35 stops individual freelancers getting, so that they can undercut individual freelancers while charging their clients less. This together with the crazy intra company transfer visa rules have decimated some lines of work where such visas have been used to flood the country with cheap labour from abroad, and even worse much of this labour has gone onto gain indefinite leave to remain in this country, and they get massive tax perks to do so such that they can undercut local workers.
      Its fairly obvious a lot of these ideas were sold to clueless politicians and civil servants by the outsourcers who make the most money from its side affects.

  15. formula57
    June 6, 2023

    Like all “let’s tax the rich” schemes that I can recall inheritance tax has ended up clobbering the middle classes and some of the working classes too. Still, better than being in the front line to be clobbered like most of the working class and the lumpen proletariat by excessive immigration.

  16. Geoffrey Berg
    June 7, 2023

    I substantially agree with John Redwood’s view of taxes.
    While Inheritance Tax is unfair (and a form of double taxation, as it is tax on the residue of lifetime taxed income), it should not be the top priority for abolition. Taxes should be abolished or reduced either to promote economic growth or for electoral popularity reasons.
    In terms of economic growth, cutting or to be more radical abolishing Corporation Tax (certainly for companies that employ a proportionately significant number of people in Britain) should be the top priority.
    Reforming V.A.T. is also important as it prevents businesses from growing though I favour abolishing the V.A.T. cliff edge by reducing V.A.T. payable by the amount of the threshold more than raising the threshold.
    It is also ‘stupid and self-defeating’ to have a high tax rate that results in less tax revenue than a lower rate of tax.
    In terms of electoral popularity the most sensitive tax is Income Tax, especially Income Tax rates that should therefore be reduced.
    In relation to Inheritance Tax the best thing in electoral terms is not to abolish Inheritance Tax but to just exempt a person’s main home from Inheritance Tax calculations- that would be a big vote winner among owner occupiers.

    1. a-tracy
      June 8, 2023

      Geoffrey, the argument I see time and time again from the left about why IT should stay is that it is often on the sale of a home (especially those in the SE/London) that has gone up so high just due to its location and length of ownership, no skill, work or effort put into making that gain just luck and chance. The levels over which it is charged should go up with inflation. Also, why 40% and not 20%?

      There are many areas in the Country, especially in the North, where homes have only gone up with inflation, and often, after mortgage interest and income loss insurance protection, plus upgrades, refits and replacements, there is no gain. This creates a lot of jealousy and base instincts of injustice often among people who rent or some who live on social benefits and UC, which is ironic as they spend most of their life as a leach rather than a contributor.

      It is also quite unfair that someone requiring care in London who paid Ā£5000 for a home years ago that is now worth over Ā£1m only has to pay Ā£85,000 for their social care, yet someone in a Ā£120,000 terraced house up north pay the same Ā£85,000. I’d guess the truth is most people with private property struggle at home with home help, whereas those who own nothing claim everything from the State. I know people who have sold homes in their 60s and are blowing it all to rely on the State when it runs out! There will be more of this if Labour do away with any inheritance allowance.

  17. Sea_Warrior
    June 7, 2023

    Good to see you piling-in on this issue, Sir John. And I agree that it is not an immediate priority. At the next budget, the Chancellor should:
    (1) Tackle ‘fiscal drag’, by raising the 20% and 40% income-tax threshholds.
    (2) Set a direction of travel by reducing the 40%income-tax rate to 39%.
    (3) Reduce business rates for any sectors facing particular cash-flow difficulties.
    (4) Withdraw from the G7 commitment to keep corporation tax above a certain level.
    (5) Reduce the proportion of the population who are on some form of benefits while simultaneously paying high taxes.

  18. iain gill
    June 7, 2023

    a lot of people stop working when they earn the limit over which if they earn any more they will have to repay the child allowance from the tax year, and just sit on their hands till the next tax year. that’s how nuts our tax incentives are.

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