Immediate irritation

Unsolicited call to my mobile. Few things make me quite so immediately cross and shouty. Very few people telephone me and when my phone rings I expect it to be a friend/acquaintance not a sales centre.

Maybe I should develop some more sympathy for call centre employees and ask for a manager to direct my ranting at. But I get too cross too fast to do much apart from state quite firmly that I do not want to speak to them and that my number is TPS registered and they shouldn't be calling it, before hanging up.

Immediate irritation

Unsolicited call to my mobile. Few things make me quite so immediately cross and shouty. Very few people telephone me and when my phone rings I expect it to be a friend/acquaintance not a sales centre.

Maybe I should develop some more sympathy for call centre employees and ask for a manager to direct my ranting at. But I get too cross too fast to do much apart from state quite firmly that I do not want to speak to them and that my number is TPS registered and they shouldn't be calling it, before hanging up.

IHT

So why do married couples get a doubling of their IHT allowance? What about single people? Is my right to leave my property to those of my choosing less important than the right of a married couple to do the same? Why? What's the policy justification for that?

I can appreciate the internal logic that says 'people should be taxed when they leave property as we ought to be redistributing property to the poor rather than allowing the middle classes to pass it to their children untaxed' (don't agree with it, but I can see the argument).

I can also appreciate the argument that only couples who have entered into a legal contract with each other should be entitled to benefit from the tax break (again, don't necessarily agree with it & probably wouldn't marry someone simply to get IHT benefits because I don't want the courts involved in any relationship I have should it end).

Edit - Ahh. So the plan isn't the one I thought it was ie. £600 000 per person who is married/in a civil partnership. It's £600 000 between the two people so there's no tax advantage to leaving property to someone other than the surviving partner on the first death.

IHT

So why do married couples get a doubling of their IHT allowance? What about single people? Is my right to leave my property to those of my choosing less important than the right of a married couple to do the same? Why? What's the policy justification for that?

I can appreciate the internal logic that says 'people should be taxed when they leave property as we ought to be redistributing property to the poor rather than allowing the middle classes to pass it to their children untaxed' (don't agree with it, but I can see the argument).

I can also appreciate the argument that only couples who have entered into a legal contract with each other should be entitled to benefit from the tax break (again, don't necessarily agree with it & probably wouldn't marry someone simply to get IHT benefits because I don't want the courts involved in any relationship I have should it end).

Edit - Ahh. So the plan isn't the one I thought it was ie. £600 000 per person who is married/in a civil partnership. It's £600 000 between the two people so there's no tax advantage to leaving property to someone other than the surviving partner on the first death.