Jacob Rees Mogg has urged the Government to 'SCRAP inheritance tax to drive Britain into next century'
Sir Jacob Rees Mogg has urged the Chancellor to scrap inheritance tax.
Speaking on GB News, the former Business Minister said such a move would help drive Britain's economy forward into the next century.
Commenting on the upcoming Spring Budget, which will now be delivered on March 6, Sir Jacob told GB News: “Let's hope we can have bigger celebrations later into next year with the budget on the sixth of March and in particular on inheritance tax. Inheritance tax is a pernicious and bad tax, which ought to be scrapped.
“The reason inheritance tax is such a bad tax is because of its economic consequences. It leads to the misallocation of capital and that undermines economic progress and investment. Why and how? Well because when people are worried about inheritance tax, they invest in things that they know will be limited in their inheritance tax burden. So instead of buying for example, a footsie 100 company, they will buy a small company because a footsie 100 company is always liable to inheritance tax if you're over the threshold, whereas a small company may be exempt.
“You see the same with farmland, farm businesses and farmland within them is inheritance tax free, but if you own a house or property that's built on something that was farmland, it's not - so you distort the investment. And you also encourage people to hold on to investments that they'd otherwise be better off selling and reallocating the capital.
“It means that money is not used as productively as it ought to be. It's not invested in those things that will drive the economy into the next century. So that's why it's a bad tax. It's time to scrap inheritance tax in the spring budget.”
Watch the clip above for more.
