The well-known, almost cliched, definition of madness is said to be trying the same thing repeatedly and expecting different results. This is a problem socialists have, and its consequences are undermining the United Kingdom's economy. Every report that comes in seems to show further damage that is being done by the Chancellor, Rachel Reeves’s policies.
The increase in National Insurance for employers has seen one job being lost every 9 minutes, while the increase in Stamp Duty is proving especially damaging to the sales of rural houses. Second homes are being additionally hit by penal council tax charges. Lower employment and less tourism is an unattractive background for the British countryside, but in some cases they have foolishly asked for it.
This is one of the conundrums that serious Chancellors have to take account of in their deliberations. People in areas with many second homes complain that their house prices are forced up and seek redress. Thus hitting second homeowners and holiday lets appears popular; it is a response to voters' requests.
Yet when this is done, its effects are unpopular, because second home owners bring wealth, employment and prosperity to the area they sojourn in. When they leave, the previous poverty of the region reasserts itself and their absence is a worse blight than the increase in housing costs they created. Wales has been especially hard hit by this, as former second-home properties prove unsaleable and the summer economy is ruined.
This a prime example of how short-term government by focus group has long-term effects which not only alienate the voters they were intended to help, but damage the economy at the same time. This applies even more to ‘non-doms’, that is to say, people who reside in but are not domiciled in the United Kingdom.
Domicile is a complex area of tax definition. Whereas residency is subject to some fairly straightforward rules, domicile was not. It used to be very difficult to change in either direction, even absence abroad for years was not in itself sufficient.
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