Inheritance tax proposed
The Constitution Drafting Subcommittee yesterday floated an ambitious proposal to impose an inheritance tax and land tax as part of an effort to bridge income disparity.
Krikkiat Pipatseritham, a subcommittee member, said that whenever there was a political change in the country, inheritance tax was brought into discussion but never materialised. "We have a huge income disparity gap. Multi-billionaires can cause trouble to the country. We have to curb their influence with inheritance tax," he said. Statistics showed that 20 per cent of wealthy people held 43 per cent of the total assets of the whole population. Now the figure has risen to 58 per cent. "The poor become poorer because of unfair tax collection," he said. He cited that 99.9 per cent of the population will not be adversely affected from the collection of inheritance tax - if the tax is collected from people with over Bt1 billion in assets. An inheritance tax was imposed from 1933 to 1942 but was scrapped after facing rising opposition by the rich. Several panel members backed the proposal saying if the move could not be implemented by this government, it can hardly be carried out by an elected government. Wicha Mahakhun, a subcommittee member, supported the proposal saying wealth was concentrated on just a few rich families. "Having too much wealth can make family members kill each other for the inheritance," he said. The panel was also split on whether to remove the death penalty.
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