Mar 18 2007
Council Tax- we need some relief from these bills
Many people are afraid of the Council Tax bill. In many places it is now too high, and in some places it goes up too quickly.
The government should understand these fears and immediately rule out
1. New higher bands
2. A general revaluation.
People need some relief from threats of more taxation. Your house value may have gone up, but that does not mean you have extra income to pay more to government.
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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...
Well said. Is this Conservative policy?
The problem with Council Tax is not the tax but the people who spend it. We do not need a general evaluation but a fresh look at what Councils have a duty to provide. I would suggest that A Gender Equality Outreach Worker, for example, is not one of them.
Did you see a paper Peter Lilley (I think) wrote a few years ago, (for Adam Smith or the CPS I don’t recall which) suggesting that responsibility for VAT rate setting and collection be switched to local authorities and property based taxation be abolished?
This would force councils to keep taxes down, whereas there is no mechanism to facilitate this undee council tax. In addition, sales taxes by virtue of their drip, drip, drip nature would be more affordable, and it would make local authorities wholly responsible for their revenue collection. The current pantomime, where local authorities blame central government and vica versa serves no-one and makes no-one accountable.
It seems to work well as a sales tax for the various states in North America, why not a similar thing here?
Stuart Fairney: “It seems to work well as a sales tax for the various states in North America, why not a similar thing here?”
Stuart, an extremely sensible idea. But you ought to know, the british sales tax which did exist was abolished by Edward Heath ( allegedly, a Tory ) and replaced by VAT, part of the terms and conditions for joining the EU. VAT is the European Unions own tax and the british government cannot change it without the permission of the EU. So while your idea is an excelent one, it is not in the power of the british government to implement it while we remain in the EU.
http://ec.europa.eu/taxation_customs/taxation/vat/how_vat_works/index_en.htm
Apl, thanks for the history and constitutional information, I didn’t know this, but have long been a proponent of renegotiating the terms of our relationship with the EU.
Thanks for the link.