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BS: UK: Council Tax revaluation concerns
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BS: UK: Council Tax revaluation concerns |
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Subject: BS: UK: Council Tax revaluation concerns From: Tootler Date: 07 Jan 07 - 03:44 PM This article was in today's Sunday Telegraph. It seems that a proposal for annual revaluation of houses for council tax could have far reaching consequences. In effect your council tax will go up every time you improve your home - internally or externally. The govt. will take far reaching powers to inspect homes for council tax evaluation. IMO, One potential consequence is that many people will let their homes decay rather than renew and repair. If true this is iniquitous. |
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Subject: RE: BS: UK: Council Tax revaluation concerns From: GUEST,jOhn Date: 08 Jan 07 - 07:22 AM Wahts Inquitos mean? |
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Subject: RE: BS: UK: Council Tax revaluation concerns From: Bagpuss Date: 08 Jan 07 - 07:39 AM Means wicked or sinful. |
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Subject: RE: BS: UK: Council Tax revaluation concerns From: GUEST Date: 08 Jan 07 - 07:49 AM oh. |
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Subject: RE: BS: UK: Council Tax revaluation concerns From: GUEST Date: 08 Jan 07 - 08:01 AM Well, my house soars in value every time I do the washing up, i.e. not very often. |
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Subject: RE: BS: UK: Council Tax revaluation concerns From: Leadfingers Date: 08 Jan 07 - 01:15 PM Obvious solution is to NOT make any improvements just to 'tart the house up' , but to wait til you are looking to sell ! Then do it all before it goes on the market |
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Subject: RE: BS: UK: Council Tax revaluation concerns From: Paul Burke Date: 09 Jan 07 - 03:41 AM The old rates system collapsed because governments were too cowardly to rebase the system in line with inflation. They were quite happy for local councils to raise the rate up to 200p in the pound- the councils got the flack, and it seemed to be in no one's interest to notice that if they didn't raise the take in line with inflation (of money PLUS expectations in serveices), there wouldn't be the money for those services. The poll tax failed because it was manifestly unfair- the supermarket shelf stacker paying the same as the city stockbroker. The council tax was the uneasy compromise, a tax based on the notional value of the house. However, the valuation itself was carried out very crudely- estate agents valuing whole areas in blocks- and the bands set very coarsely. And house price inflation means that in many areas, amost all the houses come into the top brackets. there's really no easy way out. Money has to be raised from taxation, otherwise we can't have the services we need. The only issue is about what gets taxed. The obvious solution is to take most tax from those with most wealth, but for various political and ideological reasons this isn't available (not least because the people imposing the taxes hope to end up among the wealthy themselves). So they want to tax the appearance of wealth, in a tradition stretching back through taxes on ruffs and hat feathers, through hearths and windows, to the present proposal. It's totally in line with the instincts of the last few governments that this should be as intrusive as possible. The'd install surveillance cameras in our homes if they thought they could get away with it. And the tragedy is that, after some moral panic, say over abuse within the family, most people would think it perfectly reasonable like they do with street surveillance. |
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Subject: RE: BS: UK: Council Tax revaluation concerns From: Bunnahabhain Date: 09 Jan 07 - 06:40 AM Be very scared of this one. # Gordon Brown is going to be after every penny he can get to try and bribe us with our own money at the next election. Council tax revaluation is perfect for this, as he can say, with all honesty, 'it's not me it's your Council rasing this tax', whilst cutting the grant the Council gets from central taxation, so the Council ends up with no more money for rasing taxes, but Central Govt does. He's more slippery than a greased eel. |
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Subject: RE: BS: UK: Council Tax revaluation concerns From: sapper82 Date: 09 Jan 07 - 03:59 PM Subject: RE: BS: UK: Council Tax revaluation concerns From: Paul Burke - PM Date: 09 Jan 07 - 03:41 AM The poll tax failed because it was manifestly unfair- the supermarket shelf stacker paying the same as the city stockbroker. Wrong Paul. There was a system of relief for the low paid, poorly thought out admittedly, but capable of being fine tuned had the system been given a proper chance. The Community Charge was certainly a much fairer system than the current shambles. |
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Subject: RE: BS: UK: Council Tax revaluation concerns From: GUEST, Topsie Date: 09 Jan 07 - 04:07 PM My objection to the poll tax was that required that the 'authorities' be informed every time anyone changed address - children leaving home and coming back, lovers moving in and moving out . . . no private life allowed. |
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Subject: RE: BS: UK: Council Tax revaluation concerns From: sapper82 Date: 10 Jan 07 - 02:57 PM From: GUEST, Topsie "My objection to the poll tax was that required that the 'authorities' be informed every time anyone changed address - children leaving home and coming back, lovers moving in and moving out . . . no private life allowed." Dosn't even compare with the potential for an annual inspection of your house! |
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Subject: RE: BS: UK: Council Tax revaluation concerns From: GUEST Date: 10 Jan 07 - 03:02 PM Topsie the thinking behind that one was meant to be that a house consisting of four working adults were using the amenities funded by the poll tax four fold. So they should all contribute towards the tax. Now should little Mrs. Brown living on her own on a meagre state pesnion pay the same as them? It was an ill concieved and executed tax, but not for the reasons you state. |
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Subject: RE: BS: UK: Council Tax revaluation concerns From: Scrump Date: 11 Jan 07 - 07:23 AM Is that Gordon's mum? :-) The idea of the poll tax was that each (adult) person should pay something towards the cost of the services they use - which seems a fair enough concept on the face of it. But if (to use the example above) a shelf-stacker and a city stockbroker paid the same, is that wrong? The shelf stacker already pays a lot less income tax than the stockbroker, and they both use the same services. My view is that income tax is too high for low earners - or rather, the thresholds where you start paying tax are too low. The personal allowance (i.e. the point above which you start paying income tax) is still just over 5K GBP. I think it's very wrong that someone who only earns 6K GBP should have to pay income tax - but they do (I know, I had a bad year a few years ago and resented paying tax on the pittance I earned that year). 6K GBP is nowhere near enough to live on these days. IMO the thresholds should be put up dramatically, to say 10K. Even that probably isn't enough to live on these days, assuming you have the usual bills to pay and don't just live at home 'for free' with your parents or similar. But putting the thresholds up would help make things fairer. OK, they would have to put tax rates up for higher earners to compensate, but it would be fairer overall. The higher earners would themselves be getting the same allowances. Then a poll tax or something similar would be fairer, because every individual would pay it, so "little Mrs Brown" wouldn't pay the same as a family of 4 adults next door. |
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Subject: RE: BS: UK: Council Tax revaluation concerns From: Bunnahabhain Date: 11 Jan 07 - 10:16 AM Scrump, don't be silly. If you raise income tax thresholds, then poor people pay less tax, and therefore don't have to jump through the hoops of the tax credit, income support and other such systems to get their money back, and therefore don't provide employment for several layers of bureacrats. Besides, the last time anything along those lines was proposed, it was by the Tories, and those are a very rare species round here. |
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Subject: RE: BS: UK: Council Tax revaluation concerns From: Scrump Date: 11 Jan 07 - 10:34 AM Bunnahabhain - I rest my case (regarding the removal of several layers of bureaucracy, not the proposal by the Tories, as I don't want to get into any party political arguments) |
