Get ahead of the Autumn Budget. Protect what’s yours with expert advice, plus a range of useful tools and calculators. | | The Chancellor is set to announce a levy on homes in Bands F, G and H |  | Lauren Davidson Executive Money Editor | If you’re breathing a deep sigh of relief that the “mansion tax” expected to be announced in tomorrow’s Budget will affect only the 150,000 most expensive properties, don’t relax just yet.
True, a tax on properties worth more than £2m would affect only 0.5 per cent of the country’s households, but experts fear this could be the thin end of the wedge.
As one accountant told us: “Once introduced, these sorts of measures have a nasty habit of sucking in higher numbers of taxpayers over time.”
Time and time again, we have seen politicians launch a new tax aimed at a wealthy minority, only to tinker with rates and freeze thresholds until a much larger group of taxpayers is caught in the net.
Take stamp duty. Before 1997, the top marginal rate was 1 per cent on properties worth over £60,000. Today, the highest rate you’ll pay is 12 per cent – or 17 per cent if buying an additional property – meaning the purchase of a £2m home would incur a stamp duty bill of £153,750. Stamp duty now generates £11.6bn, up from £675m in 1997.
The number of estates paying inheritance tax has doubled since the £325,000 nil-rate band was frozen in 2009, and since 2011 the number of people who pay the higher and additional rates of tax has also doubled – helped by a freeze on thresholds that Rachel Reeves is likely to extend for a further two years, dragging even more taxpayers into the 40 per cent rate.
Charlotte Gifford, our Senior Money Reporter, explores more examples of taxes that started out small but soon morphed into something much bigger. Mansion tax isn’t one of them yet – but it soon might be.
Continue reading ➤
Starmer and Lammy to avoid ‘mansion tax’ after Treasury softens rules ➤
Plus, for our advice on how to protect your money after tomorrow’s announcement, you can sign up to our free Money newsletter here. | | MPs pressed Samir Shah on whether he was the right person to lead the BBC |  | Gordon Rayner Associate Editor | Is chairman Samir Shah the right man to lead the BBC out of its current crisis, given that it happened on his watch? That was the question MPs attempted to answer yesterday when Mr Shah appeared before a parliamentary committee, and there remain severe doubts that the answer is yes.
The picture that emerged at the Commons culture, media and sport committee was one of “chaos” at board level, in the words of the committee chairman, with ongoing divisions that contributed to dithering and delay over its response to The Telegraph’s disclosures about alleged bias.
MPs were told of a “sharp difference of opinion” between board members about what the BBC should say when it emerged that a Panorama documentary had doctored a speech made by Donald Trump.
Mr Shah went on the attack against a board member who quit last week over governance failures, following the resignations of director-general Tim Davie and News CEO Deborah Turness.
Significantly, after claims of a Right-wing coup being instigated at board level – denied by Mr Shah and fellow board member Sir Robbie Gibb – it was two Labour MPs on the committee who asked Mr Shah whether his own leadership was at fault and whether he had considered stepping down.
He insisted he was the right man to “steady the ship” but questions over his future remain.
Read the full story here ➤ | | Roland Oliphant Almost four years after Russia invaded Ukraine, a plan created by the US and fine-tuned by Europe has made a peaceful resolution viable Continue reading ➤ Sam Ashworth-Hayes Peter Kyle has just given Rachel Reeves’s game away Continue reading ➤ Celia Walden There’s nothing as cringeworthy as a man sending you bad poetry Continue reading ➤ | Make your voice heard. Join our journalists in conversation on today’s biggest topics. | | “Think about ‘prostate health’, not ‘prostate cancer’,” is the message from GP Dr Valeed Ghafoor, who manages to persuade male patients suffering from fear or embarrassment to see him. With Lord Cameron’s diagnosis in the headlines, and The Telegraph’s own prostate cancer campaign gathering momentum, Dr Ghafoor shares advice on how to have better conversations with your GP.
Continue reading ➤
Streeting urged to approve prostate cancer screening on NHS ➤ | | | Going on a raid with the police usually means watching on as criminals’ front doors are blasted open, writes Danny Shaw. This month, I joined an operation of a different kind, targeting Turkish-style barbershops, which might be fronts for crime. What I witnessed was extraordinary – clear signs that organised immigration crime and money laundering have their tentacles firmly wrapped around the British high street’s most innocent-looking premises. Continue reading ➤ | | | Polly Evans was a regional news anchor until one evening she sat down to present the show live on air and found she had lost the ability to speak. An innocent cough, caught on a flight home from Abu Dhabi, had damaged her vocal cords, robbing her of her voice and the career she loved. Here, she talks about dealing with the devastation, her battle for a diagnosis and how Botox offered an unlikely cure. Continue reading ➤ | | | It seems that almost nothing can escape the tax-grabbing clutches of Rachel Reeves this week, not even lattes. That’s because a number of life’s little pick-me-ups – including supermarket drinks and even Uber rides – could be in the crosshairs in Wednesday’s Budget. We reveal the nice-to-haves facing the Chancellor’s fun-slashing scythe. Continue reading ➤ | | | Northamptonshire, dubbed “the warehouse capital of Britain”, in 2005, and then 2025 | With online shopping growing exponentially in the UK, those moving to their dream homes in the country are finding giant warehouses springing up beside them almost overnight. Jim Norton meets the residents living in the shadow of the one-million sq ft “mega-sheds”.
Continue reading ➤ | | Anyone unfortunate enough to have seen Wicked: For Good last weekend may be left with a nagging question: What happened to Dorothy’s slippers? But a controversial colour change is just the latest chapter in a saga that involves mobsters, an FBI hunt and a $32m payday, reports Marianka Swain. Continue reading ➤ | | | Usually, as soon as my hair gets an inch past my shoulders and starts to look flat, I cut it all off and start again, writes Tamara Abraham. But, inspired by recent catwalk and red-carpet appearances from celebrities, I’m once again taking the plunge with long hair – only this time, I’m receiving help from London’s top extensions expert. This is what I’ve learned. Continue reading ➤ Below are two more helpful articles for you this morning: - Lesser-known skiing destinations often boast bigger snowfalls, fewer skiers and better off-piste adventures. These are the 10 best.
- Finally, what kind of cleaner are you? Take our quiz here to find out – and we’ll direct you to the best cleaning tools and products that suit your lifestyle.
| | Dear Richard,
My son inherited his grandmother’s Tiffany diamond ring to give to his then-fiancée. Unfortunately, they’ve now split up – he took the ring back. However, he’s talking about giving it to the next woman he wants to marry – he hasn’t met her yet. As a woman, I’m not sure I’d be too happy about receiving a ring which had previously been given to another girl. He doesn’t see anything wrong with doing that and says it was his grandmother’s and that’s all that matters. What do you think?
– K, via email
Read Richard’s response here ➤ | Early life on the job Every weekday, Orlando Bird, our loyal Reader Correspondent, shares an off-piste topic that has brought out the best of your opinions and stories. Orlando writes...
Morrisons is in Telegraph readers’ bad books. Last week, in something of a cartoon-villain move, the supermarket told its 1,700 paper boys and girls that their services would no longer be required. Instead, a “specialist firm” will be used. But shouldn’t the paper round be reserved as a rite of passage for young people – an education in graft, punctuality and the avoidance of irate dogs?
Jack Paramore thought so: “When I was a lad, I delivered newspapers on my bike seven mornings a week, sometimes doing two rounds on Sundays – come rain, sun or snow. I found it character-forming and rewarding, and felt ready afterwards to face the rigours of school education and sports. It gave me an appreciation of hard work and its rewards.”
Kirsty Blunt recalled: “My first paid job was doing a paper round that I inherited from my older brother and sister at the age of 13. This was in the Highlands, and back then The Telegraph arrived by train from London around mid-morning. My afternoon round consisted of only six houses scattered across the town; I was paid £5 weekly. I was also a keen sportswoman, and my kind mother filled in for me when I had after-school fixtures. Realising what was going on, my father tried and failed to deduct petrol money from my wages.”
Jim Corbett looked back fondly on other early employment: “I had a board-level career, but the jobs I still hold as my favourites are: the evening paper round; being a Saturday shop assistant at the late-lamented Gamages in High Holborn; and, best of all, working at a hardware shop in Kentish Town. I have retained an encyclopaedic knowledge of paraffin heater wicks, screws and candles.”
I must admit I never did a paper round. During my summer holidays I worked in a rather well-known gallery in St Ives, Cornwall. Part of my job involved giving visitors the impression that I knew something about art. A pretty cushy gig, I know. But it made me the bluffer I am today.
What was your first job? Send your responses here, and the best of the bunch will feature in a future edition of From the Editor PM, for which you can sign up here.
Please confirm in your reply that you are happy to be featured and that we have your permission to use your name. | |
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Yesterday’s Panagram was RECOMMEND. Come back tomorrow for the solution to today’s puzzle. | | Thank you for reading. Have a fulfilling day and I hope to see you tomorrow. Chris Evans, Editor
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