MSE News: Charity calls for council tax reform

Former_MSE_Helen

"Council tax bands should be adjusted so that those in higher-value homes pay proportionally more, says a charity ..."

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Charity calls for council tax reform

DJ_Mike

Another cheap shot at people who put their money into home equity. Do people who live in homes 4 times as expensive cost the council 4 times as much maintenance? No, they do not. If you want a truly fair progressive tax on home ownership and profiting from house price increases, then by all means get rid of the capital gains tax free rule on main home sales, but stinging people just for living in more expensive homes isn't fair.

iancummings

NO, when will people realise that having a house that has gone up in value over the last 15 years doesn't mean I have any more disposable income. I struggled to buy a house in a decent area, the price of the house has rocketed (nothing to do with me) and my salary has gone down.

lazer

The value of your house has nothing to do with how much council tax you should pay.


Spilt Council tax into 2 parts - one part paid by everyhouse (To cover things such as street lighting, refuse collection etc, ie: things that are required on a per household basis). This amount should be static
and the other part on a per person basis to cover the services provided by the council.

WestonDave

Whilst I can see some benefits (it might push some elderly households to release bigger properties) in reality the smaller number of high value properties would lead to a relatively small reduction in bills when shared across many more lower value properties.Of course we've yet to see the wailing and gnashing of teeth when nearly everyone has to start contributing to council tax from next year due to CTB being capped in most councils.

mr_jrt

Although in those examples refuse collection would be more appropriately per-occupant as that largely determines the amount of refuse generated, less so per household.

Still, the only fair taxes are progressive taxes, so either abolishing council tax for a local income tax supplement or land value taxation (I'm not allow to link to Wikipedia, apparently - but it's explained on there) are pretty much the only viable options to me.

Butterfly_Brain

I think that a much fairer system would be a council tax based on income.

CTA_2

Cannot ever see how or why council tax should be based on income. It is a tax in respect of services provided and those services are provided equally to each household.

Income tax is progressive, not every tax has to be progressive. Indeed, a "good" tax should be one people agree with.

What does how much i earn affect the services I receive from the council? If anything, earning more would probably equate to fewer services used.

lazer

mr_jrt wrote: »

Although in those examples refuse collection would be more appropriately per-occupant as that largely determines the amount of refuse generated, less so per household.

Still, the only fair taxes are progressive taxes, so either abolishing council tax for a local income tax supplement or land value taxation (I'm not allow to link to Wikipedia, apparently - but it's explained on there) are pretty much the only viable options to me.

I don't necessarily see that the only fair taxes are progressive taxes.
I personally would favour an increase in VAT (which is definately not considered a progressive tax) over an increase in income tax - as it is a tax on non essential spending - so those with the highest disposable incomes pay most, not necessarily those with the highest incomes.
Something like council tax is nothing to do with income, why should you pay more just becasue you earn mroe, you do not use extra services (In fact you probably actually use less!)
It is also nothing to do with house value, as this is often dependent on the area your house is in, why should someone in a high value one bedcity centre appartment pay more than a family of 6 in a 4 bed out in the suburbs?

bell

Yep. Really a local government income tax, taken at source is the best way to go about replacing the horribly regressive and inefficient council tax.

bell

Also VAT is really not an tax on non-essential spending anymore, given that it has been expanded since its introduction to include all manner of things (especially food).

Its horribly regressive as any hike in it, hits lower income households way harder as a percentage of income.