Feetham’s Property Tax Reveals Government Desperate for Cash

This is a Government that is so short of cash that it needs to tax due to its historic misspending. When it does so, it needs to do so with an eye on the effect it may have on inwards investment at a time when our economy is facing strong headwinds of uncertainty. Investors need tax certainty and the Minister’s enthusiasm to randomly revamp our long-established tax laws, without consultation, is unnerving some.

The Minister for Taxation the Hon. Nigel Feetham KC MP, signalled in his Budget address in July that he intended to introduce a tax on those who conduct a ‘property trade’. The Bill which was gazetted on 25 July 2024 has raised more questions than provided answers as to its application.

Roy Clinton MP the GSD Shadow Minister for Public Finance and Inwards Investment stated the following:

“The Bill as drafted seems to go beyond what the Minister suggested in Parliament in it that he was seeking to tax ‘those who effectively have a property trade’. The Minister on social media has suggested this was to target ‘a few wealthy property speculators-those who buy large numbers of properties off-plan from developers’ but this Bill goes beyond that intention and lacks clarity. The Bill in my opinion is too widely drafted and doesn’t specifically target ‘off-plan’ speculators as intended, I have privately advised the Minister of my concerns.

The reason for this measure will not be lost on people. It is the terrible lack of cash the Government faces. For the reasons well-explained during the Budget debate the GSLP/Libs are caught in a cycle of public finances mismanagement from which they cannot emerge and are just simply casting different nets to scoop up monies everywhere to fund their inability to keep to their budgets.

Beyond that the Minister’s letter published in the Chronicle last Friday was simply inappropriate in discussing the private financial affairs of a citizen. Are people not able to engage with the Government without the risk of being embarrassed in public just because they disagree with a particular measure?”