Always read the small print

Proposals for this and that come thick and fast, there’s no shortage of people at least claiming that they’re going to make the world a better place. It is, however, necessary to always read the small print of such policy offerings. For that’s where the real point is, not in the glossy surface of pandering to currently fashionable ideas.

Take this for example:

Stamp duty and council tax should be scrapped and replaced with an annual wealth levy on housing which would hit the best-off hardest, according to an influential group of politicians and economists.

The new annual proportional property tax (APPT) would seek to raise the same amount for the Government as existing property taxes, but more closely reflect the value of homes than the existing system that includes council tax valuations dating back to 1991.

Land value tax is good taxation. Deadweight costs are low, possibly even negative at times. As Henry George pointed out at such length it’s possibly even righteous that the value added to land by the civilisation around it be taxed to pay for that surrounding civilisation. Which is what this looks like on the surface. And yet here’s the true heart of it:

The new property tax has been proposed by economists Paul Cheshire and Christian Hilber and backed by politicians including Labour’s Margaret Hodge, Conservative Lord Willets and Lib Dem Sir Vince Cable. It would charge the owner 0.11pc of the property’s value each year for the central government, plus a local charge set by councils.

Ah, no, that’s a grab at the revenue stream by central government. Greater centralisation not being something that many would propose as a cure for whatever ails Britain. Except, obviously, those who might get to allocate, from the centre, the spending resulting from the change.

The small print matters.