Cherie Blair is getting set to launch a legal battle against George Osborne’s plans to increase tax on buy-to-let investors, claiming it is a breach of landlords’ human rights.
In last July’s summer Budget, announced capping of mortgage interest that landlords will be able to offset against tax.
The change will mean that landlords will be taxed on turnover, and not on profit – meaning that some will have to pay tax, even if they are making losses.
However, landlords that operate as companies, including pension funds and insurance companies, will be exempt. They will continue to be taxed on profit.
In a letter to HMRC, Blair’s firm Omnia Strategy says that the policy discriminates against individual buy-to-let investors.
Omnia has been hired by two landlords, Steve Bolton and Chris Cooper, who used crowd funding to raise the money to bring an action.
Blair, the former Labour leader’s wife, is a landlord in her own right.
She and her family own a number of properties, most of which are let.
The Government has 14 days to respond to the letter, after which the matter moves to a judicial review, where a court will be asked to rule on whether the legislation is valid.
As most small landlords would agree Osbornes policies are blatantly discriminatory and obviously designed to blow the small Landlord completely out of the market place – A policy more in keeping with extreme leftwing politics and not a bit encouraging for the small, honest landlord. I don’t think Cherie Blair will be personally affected but I admire Bolton & Cooper for their choice of QC. The unfortunate thing is that we, the Tax Payers will end up with another big bill for the legal challenge due to what really amounts to a severe breach of Human Rights !!
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Reminds me of a local court case funded by a neighbour who objected (in principal) to an adjacent property being occupied by tenants. The solicitors acting knew that the case was hopeless, but it was a funded instruction on behalf of their client. Possibly more about PR.
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