Tax reform

[JohnD]

I did hear the suggestion that Council Tax should be reformed

So that a person with a £50,000 house pays X amount, a person with a £100,000 house pays twice as much, a person with a £500,000 house pays ten times as much, and a person with a £5,000,000 house pays a hundred times as much, and a person with a £50,000,000 house pays a thousand times as much.

What a good idea.

 

[JohnD]

Keeps cropping up.

In the UK, most wealth is held in the firm of pension funds and real estate.

If the nation needs public services, without increasing the national debt further towards unaffordable infinity, it needs to raise income. You can't get much by trying to tax the poor.

Billionaire oligarchs and nondom tax-dodgers like to buy palatial homes and country estates here.

An article in the FT commented:

"UK council tax is based on 1991 property valuations, grouped into eight price bands and paid by tenants. It is probably the world’s most unfair property tax: the poorest pay the highest tax as a percentage of property value and the richest the least. It is also unfair regionally. The tax revenue raised by a home in the top band is around £4,500 in Nottingham but just £1,060 in Westminster."

FT.com


Hmmmmm, room for improvement, I think.

 

[JohnD]

"The idea of creating new council tax bands for the most expensive homes in England has been on the table in the Treasury since it was considered by Conservative chancellor George Osborne in 2012."

" Even some wealthy property owners admit reform is overdue. Michael Sherwood, former Goldman Sachs executive, told the Financial Times this week that council tax was “very unfair”, adding: “If you have more expensive homes, you should pay more for them.”

FT.com
Published3 hours ago

 

[morqthana]

There are far too many people in this country who think they can have champagne on a beer budget.

 

[JohnD]

It's almost as if we have a tax system that is designed to give the easiest ride to the richest people.

 

[motorbiking]

What a good idea.

stupid idea.

but I think you know that already.

 

[motorbiking]

Same type of house hugely different price.

If you want to make it fair, tax by M^2

Or you could call it a "Southerner tax" and be honest about what the goal is.

 

[Koolpc]

The tax on my kennel went up to £5.23p this year!!!! Extortionate!

 

[Ihavenojob]

If you want to make it fair, tax by M^2

New builds will pay minimal then.

 

[Brigadier]

If you want to make it fair, tax by M^2

 

[motorbiking]

I can understand why you'd prefer it based on the value:

Check out this 6 bedroom detached house for sale on Rightmove

6 bedroom detached house for sale in Knowle Road, Stafford, ST17 for £1,200,000. Marketed by Express Estate Agency, Nationwide

www.rightmove.co.uk

Check out this 4 bedroom terraced house for sale on Rightmove

4 bedroom terraced house for sale in Munster Road, Fulham, SW6 for £1,500,000. Marketed by Chestertons, Fulham

www.rightmove.co.uk

 

[Brigadier]

I can understand why you'd prefer it based on the value:

Check out this 6 bedroom detached house for sale on Rightmove

6 bedroom detached house for sale in Knowle Road, Stafford, ST17 for £1,200,000. Marketed by Express Estate Agency, Nationwide

www.rightmove.co.uk

Check out this 4 bedroom terraced house for sale on Rightmove

4 bedroom terraced house for sale in Munster Road, Fulham, SW6 for £1,500,000. Marketed by Chestertons, Fulham

www.rightmove.co.uk

I expressed no preference one way or the other.

I was just laughing at your usual stupidity.

If the intention is going after money, at least go after those with it.

It's called pragmatism

 

[Murdochcat]

The simplest and easiest change that could be made to the council tax system is to have the valuation updated after an extension IMMEDIATELY rather than when it next changes hands

Setting an arbitrary rate based on a country wide valuation will no doubt be unfair to say the very least

 

[SPLINE]

Stop the government spending so much in the first place.

 

[Justin Passing]

It's almost as if we have a tax system that is designed to give the easiest ride to the richest people.

Same old trope, but how do you work that out, given the income tax bands we have?
The poorest pay very little tax..
Of course people with more money can have an easier life, that's why they bothered to earn it
It's capitalism. If you don't like that, naff off to North Korea or Cuba or somewhere. You won't change it here.

Milk eggs bread electricity unit costs are unrelated to whether you built an extension on your house or not, or where the house is. They don't depend on the old Poll Tax cry "It should be based on ability to pay". Why should it be, when nothing else is?
DO use the size of the house which correlates roughly with the number of people in it, and allow for the local costs of providing the services which vary across the country, ok. But the same house a few streets away might cost 30% more because it's in a posh school area. They do where I am. Why should they pay more for their bin collection?

I'm not in principle against some sort of wealth tax, but it should be determined by wealth, not random emotional populist kneejerks.
One can test the theory, by taking an extreme. If someone sitting in a 2 up, 2 down has amassed a ton of money on bitcoin, or inherited a couple of mill from an uncle, should they be paying more, or not?