Top-end landlords face higher taxes from Lib Dems

News Category: Industry News

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Landlords who own property worth more than £1 million would be taxed more under a proposal from Liberal Democrat Treasury spokesman Vince Cable.

He announced the idea of a 0.5 per cent additional levy yesterday in Bournemouth at his party's annual conference.

A home worth £2 million would be taxed an extra £5,000 a year while one costing £4 million would be taxed a further £15,000 annually.

The tax is designed to lift 300,000 low-paid workers and pensioners out of taxation.

By raising £1 billion through the tax he believes that the UK income tax threshold could be moved up to £10,000.

But the plan would be likely to dissuade prospective top-end property buyers from investing in new homes according to Ed Mead, a director at London estate agent Douglas & Gordon.

"My initial instinctive reaction as an estate agent is that that it is going to have a fairly serious negative effect on the top-end of the market in London," he said.

But he said he believed that neither Labour nor the Tories would implement the tax.

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