Mar 15 2007
Council Tax
Council Tax has earned its place as the most??unpopular tax. Huge rises under this government have catapulted it to No 1 on the hate list. The government seems set on making it even more disliked, with their ideas of snoopers coming round to see if you have improved the house, and?? higher bands for houses and flats that people have looked after well in districts where homes are valuable.
??I was pleased to see the proposal from the Conservatives that maybe people should be given a discount on their Council Tax if they improve the energy efficiency of their home. It would give them an incentive to put in the extra insulation and to??install the lower energy lightbulbs.
I would also like to see the Opposition rule out revaluation and higher bands on more valuable homes. Many people who live in them are asset rich but not income rich. A higher Council Tax would literally be taxing them out of house and home.
If the government is going to hit homes worth more than ??1million, that’s a two bedroom flat in the centre of London these days.
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John Redwood has been the Member of Parliament for Wokingham since 1987. First attending Kent College, Canterbury, he graduated from Magdalen College...
Local councils should be able to decide on their own way of raising money. If they want to raise it through a sales tax or an income tax they should be able to. They should also be able to make a new tax.
I am in favour of a divorce tax which would be gradually reduced the longer you were married so to discourage divorce. It would start off at 33% and would decrease by 1% every year. It would probably raise hundreds of millions per year and would probably make sham marriages a thing of the past.
There is an epitition on it:
http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/Divorcetax/
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