Tax on inherited property

We all know that the Nationalist Party will lose the next election primarily because of the capital gains tax on inherited property, introduced in the 2004 budget. The people complained, the Government refused to listen.

To add insult to injury, in the 2005 budget, Government came up with a ridiculous formulation which is supposed to entice the population to re-declare their inherited property. The fact remains that the government will still rob the population of one-third of inherited property. This law is also discriminatory towards those who inherited property from 1992 onwards and had not sold, as those who had already sold after 1992, get away scot-free with no capital gains tax to pay.

The people remained silent when confronted with this arrogant, stubborn attitude by the Government; but they will speak out at the next election, which will probably be the biggest disaster for the PN.

However, there is a ray of light from the Opposition regarding this tax. Just a couple of days ago, I watched Dr Anglu Farrugia, MP, on TV rightly say how unjust and obscene this tax is and promised that once elected, the Labour Party will amend the law within a couple of months. That would be just great and a big relief, but I am sure it would help the people make more clear decisions if they knew how the law would be amended.

It would also help to know if those who inherited property, sold and were robbed by this tax, would be refunded. We all know that the removal or dramatic amendment to the inherited property tax by the MLP will be the winning ticket for the party, but further clarification of the issue would help. I would really urge Dr Farrugia or Dr Alfred Sant to be more specific, at least to put the people's mind at rest.