howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
#1
from the telegraph.
the remarks from Vince Cable, the Business, Innovation and Skills secretary, will dismay the Tory right which is putting increasing pressure on the Coalition to scrap the 50p tax rate.
Earlier this week, Mr Cable insisted that the tax-free threshold for lower earners should be lifted above £10,000 before the Government considers abolishing the rate.
This would mean that any changes would not happen until after 2015, when the tax-free threshold is due to have risen from the current level of £7,450 to £10,000.
However, yesterday he suggested that the Liberal Democrats recognised that the issue of the top rate of tax will need to be looked at.
Mr Cable told The Daily Telegraph: "My party has always accepted that at some stage it will have to be dealt with".
He said it would have to be replaced by another levy linked to a person's worth or the value of their property, or a 'mansion tax'.
He said: "If the top tax rate was removed it would need to be replaced with something else - primarily something associated with wealth or high value property."
Earlier this year, Nick Clegg, the deputy Prime Minister, signalled the implementation of a tax on expensive homes.
Mr Clegg said the move would be introduced once the economy was recovering and those on lower middle incomes were "breathing more easily".
The income generated by the new tax, generated through changes to the council tax system or stamp duty, would allow the Coalition scrap the 50p rate, which Chancellor George Osborne has described as temporary.
Mr Cable's comments come just days after Danny Alexander, the Lib Dem Chief Secretary to the Treasury, said wanting the cut was "cloud cuckoo land".