Council Tax - whats yours and do you think it a good system?

chris_m

Council Tax was a poorly thought out kneejerk reaction to the complaints about the Poll Tax. I live alone so get a 25% discount - wow, so I only pay 50% more than the couple living in the identical flat opposite me have to pay each, and I'm expected to be grateful.

IMO, the mistake that Thatcher and Co made was bottling out of the Poll Tax instead of rethinking the support side of it it to cater for the genuine cases of inability to pay. Local taxation should be on a per capita basis (say, all over 18), with a robust and fair mechanism for discounts where people genuinely cannot afford their share.

Butterfly_Brain

tanith wrote: »

Yep we are in Ealing , West London...

That's because all of London's bloody waste gets dumped in this area on a weekly basis :mad:

Edale

Butterfly_Brain wrote: »

I think that it would be fairer if council tax was abolished and it was all paid by income tax

Do I take it that you have a low income and a large property then?

Butterfly_Brain

Edale wrote: »

Do I take it that you have a low income and a large property then?

Low income small property, carp council - low income due to taking a job at half the pay because of redundancy - don't sneer - it could happen to you !:(

krustychops

Hi Guys
Please forgive me as i am new to this site and probably posted incorrectly.
Can anyone help please
In December 2009 i moved into our new home. We recieved a council tax bill in February from the period 1st Dec 2009 to March 2010 for a sum of £620. I called up in Feb and payed off £100 (as i am quite strapped at the moment) i was then told that i would be issued a new bill. On Friday i recieved the new bill minus the £100 and told that i must pay the £520 within 7 days. Also i have recieved my 2010 bill from April through to Jan and they want my first payment of £189 paid by the 1st of April.
I thought that you didnt pay council Tax between Jan to Mar is this correct????
Also will i be able to pay my Dec to March bill in installments monthly preferably????
Thanks in advance for your replies
K

confuseddad_2

Why is it that i can control what i use and ultimately what i spend with all my other bills but the council tax takes no account of this and charges me a large flat fee every month.

I recycle all plastics, bottle and cardboard so reduceuing my wastage and need for the council to take my stuff to landfill. I want to be rewarded with the ability to reduce my bill through my hard work and dilligance of my useage of the services i use.

kennyboy66_2

Really2 wrote: »

TBF I think the reason it caused riots was because it was not thought threw enough before bringing it in to place.

I would be interested to see the basics of poll tax if anyone has them.

But your last comment is true, no taxes make people happy.

The basics was that everyone had to pay a roughly flat charge regardless of ability too pay (income) or assets or whether they consumed services.

Naturally if you were well off you did well, if you weren't then tough ****.

Most taxes in the UK have at least some relationship to income (PAYE, NI), wealth (Inheritance, Stamp Duties, CGT) or consumption (excise duties, VAT etc).

The advantage with the current system is that it is easy to collect and pretty difficult to avoid.

I'd extend it so that people owning huge houses pay more (by extending the bandings to say X, Y, Z). It would then operate more like a property tax (which is what the "rates" was before the Community charge).

No system is ever going to be "fair" but what we have now is a vast improvement on the Poll Tax.

donaldtramp

In my area £100 from every man, woman and child in the region goes to pay Council/public sector pensions.
That's £1 in every £5 that they receive!!!!

If you want a partial (and very irritating) explanation of where a lot of your tax goes have a read here....(It covers every Council in Britain)
http://tpa.typepad.com/home/files/council_spending_uncovered_3_pension_contributions.pdf

In 2006-07, local authorities across the country spent a total of £4.6
billion on employer contributions to the Local Government Pension
Scheme and unfunded payments and added years benefits to local
government employees, teachers and fire-fighters. This does not include
employee contributions. Nor does it include employer contributions to
the Teachers Pension Scheme. £4.6 billion is 21 per cent of council
tax revenue – £1 in every £5 of council tax.

Now you know how to react when the local public sector try to hold you to ransom when they go on strike. They have no idea how good they have it.

This is very amusing
HORRIBLE DRAGON THREATENS COUNCIL WORKER FANTASY LAND

donaldtramp

And it's gonna get worse...

http://www.channel4.com/news/articles/business_money/53bn+council+pensions+shortfall/3568487

Local government pension schemes collectively face funding shortfalls of more than £53 billion, a report has claimed.

£53 BILLION!!! Guess we'll be expected to pick up the tab for that as well eh?

before_hollywood

band a, single person

£720 a year, up nearly 4%