Originally Posted by C_steam:
But the tax take will be the same, which means a minority will be loads worse off. fair? My a55.

Who - the super rich? Am I supposed to feel sorry for them?
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benjamin, The council tax is set locally, but the bulk of a local authority's budget is set by central government and funded by central grants. The system is due a serious overhaul, but that would mean delegating powers and taxation downwards in a way that has not happened for some considerable time.
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Originally Posted by Northumbrian:
Who - the super rich? Am I supposed to feel sorry for them?

depends who you call 'super rich'. I'd put that at the £200,000 earners. However they can always find a way to be 'tax efficient' and offshore things. On the other hand, the people who get continually squeezed are the middle earners - say £40K - £120K. hardly super rich.

Anyway, regardless of richness, and apart from the 'they can afford it' argument - what justification is there in taxing people differing amounts for the same services?
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Originally Posted by Northumbrian:
But they do now. There are 8 bands of council tax depending on your house value. A single home owner pays one and a half times as much as one person sharing a house with another. 4 adults sharing a house pay half of that of 2 adults.

You sound like you would be in favour of the poll tax, where everyone pays the same. That indeed may not penalise those who earn high wages, but what about pensioners?

Yes - I'm in favour of a poll tax if we have to have a tax at all. If we had a poll tax, I'd want reductions for pensioners, if indeed they should pay anything.

Bottom line is that I'm a 'single taxer'. Not flat tax, note, but single tax - a single levy on all individuals to replace NI, Poll/Local tax/Income tax and all similar. I'd abandon all taxation on investment, on the principle that the money you invested has already been taxed once. Other forms of taxation (Fuel duty, road tax, 'green' taxes) would need to be ring fenced so that the sector being taxed gets all the take (i.e all fuel duty goes on transport infrastructure). Stupid taxes like IPT would be scrapped. VAT would be scrapped, business tax would be overhauled including reduction in the 'overhead' an employer pays for each employee and local taxes replaced by a purchase tax. This gives a vast simplification to the terribly complex tax system in this country, reduces burden on employers and solves the local taxation issue. (and PS - scotland can pay for itself!)
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