Carbon Legacy - It's alive I tell you... alive!

Yippeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! Someone in there likes me (well, didn't see a problem with my petition):

Your petition has been approved by the Number 10 web team, and
is now available on the Number 10 website at the following
address:

http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/Carbonlegacy/

Your petition reads:

We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to enable the
creation of a ‘Carbon Legacy’, as a direct, future
generation-benefiting substitute for Inheritance Tax

IHT debate boils down into 2 main areas. Individuals get
frustrated perceiving a major % of savings go not to securing
descendant’s futures, but to fund much that is... wasteful. To
Govt IHT is an historical plum too good to be denied, justified
by wealth being redistributed ‘for the common good’. Climate
change is accepted by a majority as the most serious issue we
face. Carbon Legacy is a fruitful compromise between entrenched
positions, which remain deadlocked. A no middleman bequest,
down to the IHT limit, donated to any initiative that is proven
to be tangibly DOING something to improve matters on a
measurable e-ROI, free from all but the most crucial
instruments of management/oversight. No ‘redirection’! Funds
straight to where most needed, to do the most good for the
future. Some devils in the detail, but doable with consensus.
In so doing it must surely satisfy both the needs and
aspirations of all sides.

Thanks for submitting your petition.

Now, if a lot of you would so good as to sign it, I, my kids and the rest (ok, most. Well, a lot , I'm sure) of the country's future generations will thank you.

Guardian - Let's get back on tax

If you can't take it with you, you don't want it to be squandered and you do want it to make the world a better place and of direct benefit for your ancestors, may I suggest: http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/Carbonlegacy/

BBC - More homes 'face inheritance tax'


Mugging the over-75s

You can't take it with you. But they don't get it. Future generations benefit.

Have I missed anything?

Telegraph - Trifling with protest

In the spirit of wanting it all ways, I have to concede that you should be able to have any petition you want, lest there be accusations of moderation (which is cute on a moderated blog).

However, in the great info overload scheme of things, part of me rather likes a bit of wood trimming to see the odd, worthy, tree

Bang it long enough and they may hear.

I've signed up to the wonder of e-petitions

'While admittedly funny in a 10yroldschoolboy kind of way (mine howled with delight as I ranted), the flippant petitions seem only to have limited uses: to discredit the process (which oddly must be the prayer of the initiators) and to provide cheap fuel for commentators.

Meanwhile I'm still wondering what happened to my suggestion for a Carbon Legacy (posted about a day before the road-pricing hit the tarmac, so I guess they are still on back log O/T at petition central - or simply pushing the trip out to kill the whole thing PDQ) as an alternative to the much resented Treasury blackhole-borne excess of the IHT limit. It seemed/s an equitable solution to the various extremes being advocated (and gleefully covered at the expense of many with more merit), and one that offers a genuine sense that one's bequest goes to improving both the future of one's direct descendants as well as society as a whole.

Have I got news for you..

Better to give than to be taxed

"The Government can help by altering the tax regime... to encourage those with millions to spare to give...'

'The government gets 40% to squander anyway'

'This country is a truly unfit one in which to raise a child.'

'...money given to Mr. Brown is simply be wasted on ideological projects.'

For what it's worth, a short while ago (about 10 minutes before the road petition issue exploded), I uploaded one advocating the creation of a Carbon Legacy as an alternative to donating the excess over the IHT limit to government-selected 'causes unknown'.

It seems an equitable way of answering all the negative issues (and points raised here) that are causing the current, divisive gridlock, from Mr. Hain's rather unilateral high-earning career targets to the 'scrap it all' approach of the Express campaign, neither of which seem likely to happen in anyone's lifetime, much less my kids.

Speaking of whom, the Carbon Legacy would be a way of knowing my inheritance would be going to ensure they and theirs have a better chance at a future as a direct consequence of my bequest, and not to support some politicians' index-linked, gold-plated pension funds.

Oddly, it has yet to be approved.

Maybe they have other things on their minds. Or don't like the logic of what I propose.

SunTel (I was moved to write 'Better to save the planet with it, than see it wasted') - Blair's wealth gap: voters want City bonus curb

CARBON LEGACY

Death... taxes. If you want a good read on a Sunday, trust the Sunday papers.

The Express has a campaign to scrap IHT. Better than nothing, but if I know the Treasury and politicians of any hue with a pension to support, that is a tad black and white. And has a snowballs chance of doing not much more than adding to the readership.

So I have fired off an e-petition to No. 10. I doubt it will get the support a major tabloid can swing, but it seems a more reasonable compromise with a certain amount of imminent planet-saving attached, as opposed to a left-wing Govt./right-wing paper bunfight. If nothing else, what's not to like as a voter. Your dosh goes to funding a pol's golden sideways transfer when they cock up, or to making things that help save the planet for our kids.

Here's the text:

We petition the prime minster to enable the creation of a ‘Carbon Legacy’, as a direct, future generation-benefiting substitute for Inheritance Tax

IHT debate boils down into 2 main areas. Individuals get frustrated seeing a major % of savings go not to securing descendant’s futures, but to fund much that is... wasteful. To Govt IHT is an historical plum to good to be denied, justified by wealth being redistributed ‘for the common good’. Climate change is accepted by all as the most serious issue we face, Carbon Legacy is a fruitful compromise between entrenched positions, which remain deadlocked. A no middleman bequest, down to the IHT limit, donated to any initiative that is proven to be tangibly DOING something to improve matters on a measurable e-ROI, free from all but the most crucial instruments of management/oversight. No ‘redirection’! Funds straight to where most needed, to do the most good for the future. Some devils in the detail, but doable with consensus. In so doing it must surely satisfy both the needs and aspirations of all sides.

I'll let you know if an when it's approved. Oh, and here's the longer version:

The problem with IHT is complex, but boils down into two main areas.

As far as the individual is concerned, having worked and been taxed all one’s life, there is a certain frustration with seeing a major % of one’s hard-earned go not to the future generations that will bear your name, but to fund quite a lot that might be deemed... wasteful.

As far as the government is concerned, this is too good an historical plum to be denied, and the claim is usually that such wealth should be redistributed ‘for the common good’.

With climate change accepted as the most important issue facing future generations, might I suggest a fruitful compromise: Carbon Legacy.

A no frills, no middleman, bequest of whatever amount one wishes, but certainly down (from whatever excess there may be) to the IHT limit; donated to any project or initiative that is proven to be tangibly doing something to improve matters, and is free from ministers, activists, City-types, lobbyists, targets, assessors, licensees and all other instruments of jobsworth cut-carving. Money straight where it is needed, to do the most good for the future. A few devils in the detail, but surely doable with relatively easy consensus.

And in so doing it must surely satisfy both the needs and aspirations of both sides. Unless people and governments are really that greedy or think they can take it with them.

I’ll suggest my own website Junkk.com as an initial beneficiary [you can delete that if it’s too commercial a plug, though we are free and really doing something tangible to help save this planet].

And it’s surely 1000% better than anything potential future deputy prime ministers can come up with by way of equitable, and practical, redistribution of wealth.

Who knows? Maybe it will strike a chord. If so, I hope it will not go the way of the road pricing one: democracy inaction:)

Guardian - The 'death trap' menacing middle Britain is a myth

Just popped over from another thread where we're discussing the economics of climate change, and the small fact there soon may not be much to leave, let alone tax.

So, Yoda-like, may I suggest that there is 'another way': CARBON LEGACY

I even thought it good enough to start a petition on the No.10 site.

If you think so too, please join in.

Let's have schools to match London's wealth

Following Mr. Hain's not-very subtle and totally pie-in-the sky notions of wealth distribution, and certain newspapers' equally Air Old Spot attempt at IHT removal, I decided (sadly about a minute before it all went ballistic on road-pricing and my submission seems to have been lost in the greenwash) to instigate a petition to create a 'Carbon Legacy'.

It was... is... an attempt to introduce a spirit of pragmatic compromise between the various rocks and hard places trying to score points off each other with no chance, and no intention, of actually getting anything done, but looking great and scoring profile for not doing so.

It's designed to provide an option for City high-flyers, Premiership footballers, Media darlings, and anyone with more than a semi in Surbiton to bequeath their excess squillions to tangible future-saving projects and not some Treasury dam-plugging black-hole.

It's on the basis that if you can't take it with you, you won't mind leaving it at least to your own next generation's future, if not actually to them.

Fancy joining in? Or, assuming it's legal and/or ethical, have you something better in mind for you money once you're gone?

To: Breakingviews.com

Attn: Hugo Dixon

Re: Carbon Legacy

Following Boris Johnson's reference to your influnence in such matters, might I commend to you the following IHT suggestion, that may appeal to those with an interest in a genuine legacy for their hard-won money.