Second home council tax discount cut

Going4TheDream

wotsthat wrote: »

The government are saying it “The government said the reforms would allow for a £20 reduction in the annual bill for a typical Band D property in England. The current average for a Band D property is £1,196.”. I'm not quoting you or taking you down any path - I'm asking if you believe it.

I'm against the BS argument that it's about services - it's not. Government want to raise taxes - they should just say so. According to them this would be tax neutral as they'd reduce the burden of the locals - it's not true.

Perhaps it wouldnt reduce the tax burden as such but mean that services that they may have had to cut wont need to be by raising the extra cash... rather than putting the tax up for everyone by £20 to keep them as they are?

pqrdef

wotsthat wrote: »

The government are saying it “The government said the reforms would allow for a £20 reduction in the annual bill for a typical Band D property in England. The current average for a Band D property is £1,196.”

Ah the mystical power of averages. But there are of course parts of the country which are pretty much devoid of second homes, so the council can't gain anything from the abolition of discounts. Presumably the residents in those areas don't get the £20, unless there's some nifty juggling with block grants.

Conversely, it follows of course that the reduction in Devon will have to be a lot more than £20, to pull up the national average.

worldtraveller

Britons with second homes overseas are to become targets to save millions of pounds in tax evasion.

A team of HM Revenue and Customs inspectors is looking at people with second homes in France, Spain and other holiday destinations to see if they are cheating the taxman.

The inspectors have been told to claw back £560million in lost revenue by 2015.

The 200-strong team will be scrutinising advertisements placed by second home owners in magazines and on the internet. They will be looking for undeclared holiday rents and leased office space.

They are also checking overseas land registers to identify taxpayers with properties abroad.

The Telegraph

Owning a second home puts you top of the league table of social pariahs? :think:

wotsthat

pqrdef wrote: »

Ah the mystical power of averages. But there are of course parts of the country which are pretty much devoid of second homes, so the council can't gain anything from the abolition of discounts. Presumably the residents in those areas don't get the £20, unless there's some nifty juggling with block grants.

Conversely, it follows of course that the reduction in Devon will have to be a lot more than £20, to pull up the national average.

What the averages hide in Cornwall, and Devon to a lesser extent, is that masses of households don't pay council tax anyway as the areas are economically deprived vs. the rest of the UK.

The services argument doesn't hold water. Only 25% of council spending comes from council tax payers - the rest is from business and central government. Households that don't pay council tax have it paid by the general taxpayer.

MRSTITTLEMOUSE

ukcarper wrote: »

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-15509705

“ The current average for a Band D property is £1,196.”

There must be some very low band Ds then,that amount won't even cover a band B round here.
I'm quite astonished that sum is the average for a band D to be honest.

Graham_Devon

MRSTITTLEMOUSE wrote: »

There must be some very low band Ds then,that amount won't even cover a band B round here.
I'm quite astonished that sum is the average for a band D to be honest.

I thought the same. Band A is only £100 less than that band D average where I am!