Private spare bedroom tax.

ukcarper

What about a tax on empty seats in cars?

lostinrates

ukcarper wrote: »

What about a tax on empty seats in cars?

Excellent, excellent.

The week we decide to go back to a defender, Two seats in all



Edit: honestly' I think taxing by pollution potential, which is essentially what Cary and council tax do crudely on size is a fair way to go. Its roughly though far from perfectly going to be a little bit income based, and its also looking at decisions we make that impact on other people both now and in the future.

antrobus

andybenw wrote: »

Interesting to see the responses. It was just a whimsical thought. Maybe an overhaul of the council tax system to properly reflect housing would be more efficient. However a straight bedroom tax would certainly concentrate minds to the fact that money could be save by utilising available bedrooms.

It might well be a "whimsical thought" to you, but to others it's the foundation for a career as a Guardian journalist.

Because of the desperate shortage of housing, especially for larger families, I suggested a bedroom tax for owner-occupiers.

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2011/jan/04/take-housing-fight-wealthy

chewmylegoff

andybenw wrote: »

Interesting to see the responses. It was just a whimsical thought. Maybe an overhaul of the council tax system to properly reflect housing would be more efficient. However a straight bedroom tax would certainly concentrate minds to the fact that money could be save by utilising available bedrooms.

There is no such thing as bedroom tax in the public housing sector - benefits reduction is not a tax however much labour try to spin it.

It would be ludicrous to try to penalise people who own their property for having a spare bedroom. The cost of collection of such a tax would be astronomical compared to the revenues raised and it would be political suicide for any party who introduced it.

SailorSam

ukcarper wrote: »

What about a tax on empty seats in cars?

Now that may be a good idea.
Lets promote car shareing.

N1AK

andybenw wrote: »

As the reason for high house prices is often given as lack of available accomodation (supply and demand), might a bedroom tax for private properties lead to an upsurge in lodger rooms etc and a subsequent realignment of the property market.

No, and a political party that suggested it would get murdered at the ballet box anyway so it's never going to happen.

borkid

What's your definition of a bedroom? Somewhere where people sleep, a room with a bed? In estate agent speak I live in a 5 bedroom house but only 2 rooms have beds in them and 2 people live in the house. The other rooms are used for a study, a music room, and a library . All rooms in the house, apart from one, are used every day, the space is being used and not sitting idle.

Why should we be taxed yet again? We 've paid tax on the money we've earnt to buy the house, pay more in council tax because of the size, paid more in stamp duty when we bought it.

Anothe silly idea why don't we tax people who have more 2 pairs of shoes or 2 gold rings or any other mad idea inspired by jealousy.

MobileSaver

andybenw wrote: »

However a straight bedroom tax would certainly concentrate minds to the fact that money could be save by utilising available bedrooms.

The problem is that the population is growing faster than places to live so one solution is to attack the source by taxing people who have children...

The more children you have the more tax you pay. Perhaps this may concentrate minds to the fact that money could be saved by NOT utilising available bedrooms.

borkid

MobileSaver wrote: »

The problem is that the population is growing faster than places to live so one solution is to attack the source by taxing people who have children...

An easier way than taxing would be to stop benefits just because you have children (is that a too outrageous a suggestion?). This would also have the advantage of reducing the administration costs.
On the other hand we do actually need children who, in the future, will contribute to the country's wealth.

System

If the aim of the proposal is to encourage people with spare bedrooms to take in lodgers, then all it needs is to increase and expand the lodger tax-free rental allowance.
That's the time-honoured way of influencing behaviour in this country - we tax things we want people to do less of, and give tax concessions to things we want to encourage.

I know it goes a bit wrong with tobacco tax, because what we'd really like is for people to pay the tax but not smoke.