‘You're not paying the tax, you're dead!’: Lewis Goodall educates caller on inheritance tax

1 June 2023, 19:12

Lewis Goodall educates caller Sharon on inheritance tax

The Conservatives have ramped up pressure on the government to abolish the UK inheritance tax and this caller says she is in favour.

Sharon began by telling Lewis Goodall, “I’m just an average Joe that has worked hard all her life,” adding “I just don’t see why I have to pay inheritance tax”.

Lewis replied by stating: “Sharon if you paid inheritance tax, by definition you would be in the top 4% of the country because only 4% of households pay it.”

Remaining adamant in her opposition to the tax, Sharon said: “I’ve paid tax all my life, why am I paying a tax again?”

Educating Sharon on the workings of inheritance tax, Lewis said: “You’re not paying the tax, it’s the person inheriting, you’re not, you’re dead!”

Lewis continued by saying: “We don’t get to decide where we get to pay tax, the whole point is there is no double taxation.”

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Lewis Goodall questions the logic behind calls to abolish inheritance tax

He questioned Sharon’s rhetoric by saying: “What if they haven’t worked hard?

“What if they’ve just got a house, because they inherited wealth, because their father inherited wealth, because their father inherited wealth?

“That is the definition of inherited privilege”.

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Concluding Lewis said: “Someone may have worked hard 500 years ago, have we got to keep respecting that?”

Their conversation follows the increasing demand from Tory MPs for the Government to abolish inheritance tax.

Led by allies of former Prime Minister Liz Truss, the Conservative Growth Group will publish a paper this month justifying why parents should have the freedom to pass their wealth onto their children without sacrificing their savings to the state.