Tax  

Greens pledge radical tax overhaul

The Green Party also plans to overhaul both property and business tax.

For property, the party pledges to introduce a Land Value Tax which is “designed to redistribute wealth and help fix our broken housing market”.

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Council tax and business rates would be replaced with this LVT which would charge the landowner a proportion of the capital value of the land each year, estimated to be about 1.4 per cent, and would be paid by landowners regardless of whether they lived on the land.

The tax would also absorb all taxes relating to owned land including stamp duty, capital gains, inheritance and income tax on land.

In terms of business, the party pledged to increase corporation tax to 25 per cent (up from 19 per cent) and close down on corporation tax loopholes by widening the definition of ‘profit’ to cover dividends, share buybacks, additions to cash holdings, payments to parent or subsidiary companies and other distributed income.

Other manifesto pledges included scrapping tuition fees and wiping the debt of those who paid £9,000 a year alongside affordable homes, an increased living wage, scrapping Trident and introducing a carbon tax on all fossil fuel imports.

imogen.tew@ft.com

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