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Chancellor's tax plans are a disaster for Tory voters

A Tory government is mulling a mansion levy and pensions tax grab. Have we woken up from a dream and it turns out that Jeremy Corbyn won the General Election after all?

As revealed by The Telegraph at the weekend, the Chancellor is considering imposing a recurring tax on high value homes in the forthcoming Budget to fund infrastructure spending in the North and Midlands. Melissa Lawford warns this would hurt first-time buyers and put the Bank of Mum and Dad out of business.

Sajid Javid is also considering unpopular reforms that would restrict tax relief on pension savings for higher earners. Instead of the current system where tax relief is at the individual’s marginal rate, all savers would get a 20pc boost under a flat rate. Around four million Britons who earn between 50,000 and 150,000 and get 40pc tax relief, would lose out on another 20pc.

This could leave savers hundreds of thousands of pounds worse off, according to analysis by AJ Bell for Telegraph Money. Separate analysis by Hargreaves Lansdown found that, assuming 5pc of annual investment growth, a 30-year-old higher-rate payer saving 1,000 a month until 65, would be 284,509 out of pocket. Meanwhile, 40-year-olds would lose 150,340, and 50-year-olds would be 65,972 worse off.

As our personal finance editor Sam Brodbeck writes, these pension reforms would hurt the young much more than the old. Many traditional Tory voters are understandably outraged, while pensions experts said it would be an “act of fiscal hooliganism” and deter people from saving for the long term.

These days, not a Budget goes by without rumours of cuts to pensions tax relief for higher earners to increase the Treasury’s coffers. Let’s hope pensions will emerge unscathed once again.

On a lighter note, if you've ever wondered how new bank notes are designed, now you can found out. Adam Williams spoke to the designer of the new 20 note, which goes into circulation next week. The polymer note features JMW Turner and even has hidden ‘Easter eggs’ for fans of the painter to discover.

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Carolyn Bates said of 'Boris Johnson's pension tax grab will hurt the young far more than the old': "I cannot believe this will go ahead, because it will cause uproar, and rightly so. While I understand that the Prime Minister has to find the money from somewhere to invest in the new Conservative voters areas, as he promised them after the election, there has to be another way to do this. There were a lot of angry comments on here regarding this, but they were not from the people who will be affected by these new tax hikes – they were from those who believe Boris Johnson is the new Robin Hood and should rightly rob from the rich to give to the poor. As I would be classed as 'the poor' in this argument, even I can see how unfair these new pension taxes would be, particularly to the younger generation. First of all, in my opinion, HS2 should be scrapped immediately. The 10 new free ports the government have announced, could generate income if the state aid rules could be challenged in any new trade deal, as we come out of the EU. There has to be alternative solutions to this, as I'm afraid, with the Huawei debacle, peerage for Hammond, the PM's change on his climate stance, and now these new tax proposals, is not the way to go if the government want to retain their core Conservative voters. Or are we to be the collateral damage for retaining Conservative first-time voters in the North, Midlands etc?"