Emailed in by MBK from The Telegraph:
Glancing down the list, published on this website today, of the multifarious tax breaks afforded to buy-to-let landlords is rather startling. None of the information is new – it is just that reading all the concessions at once is an accosting reminder of their sheer breadth and generosity.
There were a few things missing off the list, which I added in the comments:
1. There is no National Insurance on rental income, so landlords actually pay half the tax rate which their tenants suffer on their salaries.
2. The 10% wear and tear deduction (which gets the effective rate down to 18% or 36%)
3. Over £10 billion of housing benefit payments go to "private" landlords, many of whom are renting out council housing sold at crass undervalue a couple a decades ago.
4. The fact that we tax incomes in the first place instead of just taxing land values.
Moving on…
The Intergenerational Foundation, a left of center think tank which argues that wealth is unfairly concentrated among older property owners, estimated that private landlords claimed £13bn in allowable expenses last year. The value of tax sacrificed by the Exchequer was approximately £5bn, it believed.
No, the IGF is not left of centre, it is not left or right in the traditional sense.
Reducing the "unfair" appeal of buy-to-let, the argument follows, would rebalance power. It would create downward pressure on rents and hold back house price rises, allowing the young to climb on to a property ladder being steadily pulled out of reach in the south of England.
Yes, that's the general idea.
Regardless of whether you approve of buy-to-let, or its tax breaks, this is surely an unlikely solution to Britain's housing crisis. The radical reform needed to make buy-to-let unappealing would alienate a large section of the electorate, thought to be more than a million people, and so is politically unpalatable – certainly for a Conservative or centrist government.
OK, so one million vote against it, but about three or four million working tenant households would welcome it, because...
And even if it was [sic] a vote-winner, the consequence of tens of thousands of buy-to-let landlords selling up might be grave. Just who is expected to buy these houses? With ever-stricter controls on mortgage lending and the difficulties young people face in growing savings, a rush of property sales could severely damage the housing market and, consequently, Britain's economy.
Duh. We know what would happen if we partly reinstated the old system which enabled the Baby Boomers to "get on the property ladder" so young and so cheaply.
Prices would of course come down, and most working tenant households would be able to afford to buy. More owner-occupiers, less mortgage debt, isn't that what the always say they want?
If there were more sales, then that is good for the housing market, the more liquid it is, the better and the more efficient the price discovery system. Don't these people always say that lots of people moving home is good for the economy because of the knock-on boost to furniture, carpet, bathroom and kitchen shops/fitters?
The alternative might be a mass renationalisation of housing by local councils, returning the country to the post-war days that preceded Mrs Thatcher's Right to Buy scheme. That would be inordinately expensive for the state, which would have to raise taxes, borrow or print money to fund the project.
Why would it be "expensive"? If BTL landlords can make a profit i.e. cover their interest costs, then the government or local councils would do twice as well out of it as they can borrow at virtually zero cost - especially if the government or the council were buying at the new lower prices. And if banks have to write down some of the mortgage debt of people who bought at the old higher prices, the government can reimburse them out of the rental profits.
Just as with record low interest rates, which will be kept low to support profligate borrowers, the Government has allowed policy to drift to a place from which there appears no return.
Ah, the ultimate Homey argument, "we can't turn back now, it's too late - while we accept that further house price rises would be bad, price falls are worse; while we accept that stealing the wealth of savers is bad, making mortgage borrowers pay a bit more would be worse" etc etc.
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