A taxing issue
Dear John,
I was dismayed at your assertion (14 September) that "Britain's wealthier citizens... will be hoping that some of the tax-raising ideas being proposed by more left-leaning members of the coalition government never find their way into policy". You go on to argue against wealth taxes, with the implication that your readers, wealthy or not, will agree with you.
Your assumption that the wealthy will always be driven solely by financial self-interest is clearly false. Bill Gates has devoted the latter part of his career to serious philanthropy. Warren Buffett has not only joined Gates, but also said he should be required to pay more US taxes himself.
I hope I am not alone among your readers in viewing the growing social inequality as a matter of concern, not to mention the continuing bankers' kleptocracy. These are matters crying out to be tackled, and the various wealth tax proposals are an attempt to do that.
At a time when poorer households are being driven out of London by deep cuts in benefits, a serious 'mansion tax' could make housing more affordable by driving house prices down. It is also much harder to avoid than other forms of taxation: houses don't emigrate. No wealth tax proposals I have seen for the UK involve marginal rates of taxation anywhere near those seen in the 1970s, which might indeed be hit by the Laffer curve.
Yours,
Rob Hull
Dogged by spreads
Dear Simon,
Re: US dog shares to bark back (28 September 2012)
It is a dog day today. I find my dear Sipp provider charges over 4 per cent bid-offer spread round-trip on cable [City slang for the sterling/dollar exchange rate] so the Dogs have to rise by that relative to the S&P to make anything. I wonder if all brokers are such rip-off merchants.
Having explored using spread betting as an alternative, another problem has arisen, in that you cannot put the same money into each company due to difference in contract size. Some are 25 per cent or more, and some 50 per cent or more over the theoretical 10 per cent of the portfolio.
Regards,
Graham Cox (via website)
Nominee nightmare
Dear Mr Hughman,
As a long-term subscriber to the Investors Chronicle, I was pleased to see the recent survey of stockbrokers. As policy co-ordinator for UKSA, I welcomed the article on nominee accounts and their users' precarious position - a scandal waiting to happen. This subject was addressed in both the last two issues of UKSA's magazine.
Yours sincerely,
Eric Chalker, UK Shareholders' Association
