Senior Partner and leading property lawyer John Stephenson of Bircham Dyson Bell LLP believes that the so called 'mansion tax' will never come to fruition and as it stands at present, is a half baked idea.
"The overriding question is; will it be a tax on the property or on the owner of the property?" explains John Stephenson.
"If it taxes the property, then it's just another version of the council tax and will be fraught with problems of how to value the property, how often to value it and by whom - the local authority?
"If it taxes the owner of property, then without a doubt it will see the middle classes as well as senior citizens hit the hardest. By the nature of their wealth, the richest property owners will have offshore tax schemes in most cases and will be able to avoid such a tax anyway. It's simply not enforceable for them.
"Further, in many parts of the country - especially London - £1 million doesn't go very far when buying property and there will be many 'comfortable' ordinary folk affected by such a tax. It will be a tax on the middle classes.
"I really can't envisage a way that this will work or be enforceable and the Government hasn't made its plans clear. I honestly don't believe it will ever happen."
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