Lib Dem plans will hit top earners
The Liberal Democrats have set out plans to raise more than £17 billion a year by targeting the wealthiest members of society.
Central to the strategy would be a new tax on the owners of the estimated 250,000 properties worth more than £1 million and closing loopholes exploited by top earners.
The initiatives will be announced by Lib Dem economic affairs spokesman Vince Cable in his keynote speech to the party's annual conference in Bournemouth.
He will detail a new 0.5% levy on the value of properties over the £1 million threshold and pledge to prevent high earners paying capital gains tax at 18% rather than the top rate of income tax.
In an interview with The Independent, Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg said: "That is not a big sacrifice. It is a perfectly reasonable thing to ask of people who have got properties of that value, and it's completely in line with how pretty well every tax system in the world works."
The cash raised will help fund the Lib Dems' pledge to introduce a new income tax starting threshold of £10,000, lifting four million low earners out of tax altogether.
Money will also be raised by reducing the annual exemption from capital gains tax from £10,000 to £2,000 and by levying national insurance on company "benefits in kind".
