Poll tax -v- council tax : which is fairest?

[ricgem2002]

In thoery yes you could have requested it because poll tax was a tax on people and not property.

 

Council tax is divided between property and is in that sense fairer.

in theory yes but it didnt work the reason i stated extra bins were that when the poll tax came in i wrote to sheffield council requesting my extra bin to be told i wasnt entitled to one as we allready had one .so i wrote back again informing them that as i was now paying extra i was entitled to the extra services . i never got a reply to my second letter but i wished i had kept the first letter .

[Eater Sundae]

I don't know why we don't just use income tax. At least with that people are taxed according to their ability to pay.

 

When the Poll tax came in because I was subletting the tax that was my responsibilty exceeded my disposable income for the whole year!

 

A good job people with principles like Terry Fields (unlike Kinnock.....spit), opposed the stupid tax.

 

I agree, income tax is fairer. I believe that the majority of the cost of local goverment is already paid for by central government. This money is generated by centrally collected taxes, eg income tax, national insurance, VAT etc, so maybe we could go the whole way and collect all taxes centrally, and then each area is given an allowance. The problem with this is that there would be even less of a link than now between local taxation and local representation. The alternative may be a local income tax.

[Dick]

Only a householder pays council tax, but everyone has a vote in local elections.

This is unfair.

The theory of the poll tax was that when everyone had to pay local taxes it would concentrate the mind on who they were voting for.

The so-called polltax riots were caused by yobs who'd never paid any direct taxes before and didn't want start paying any.

It was weak government that got rid of the poll tax.

[Gormenghast]

I agree, income tax is fairer. I believe that the majority of the cost of local goverment is already paid for by central government. This money is generated by centrally collected taxes, eg income tax, national insurance, VAT etc, so maybe we could go the whole way and collect all taxes centrally, and then each area is given an allowance. The problem with this is that there would be even less of a link than now between local taxation and local representation. The alternative may be a local income tax.

 

A local income tax seems fairer to me. There are many people who in Sheffield are asset rich but income poor.

 

To realise their asssets would mean selling their property. What would they do then? Pay a high rent for a property that would eventually make them asset poor and income poor.

 

Local income tax seems much fairer, unless you've never paid for what you have used.

[HeadingNorth]

A local income tax seems fairer to me. There are many people who in Sheffield are asset rich but income poor.

 

To realise their asssets would mean selling their property. What would they do then? Pay a high rent for a property that would eventually make them asset poor and income poor.

 

Local income tax seems much fairer, unless you've never paid for what you have used.

 

This does bring up a second problem, though; rich people living in wealthy parts of the country (Berkshire? Kent?) will pay a relatively low local tax, but people living in poor areas will pay relatively high ones. If the whole of the local council's spending is generated by the local people, poor areas suffer.

[ricgem2002]

Only a householder pays council tax, but everyone has a vote in local elections.

This is unfair.

The theory of the poll tax was that when everyone had to pay local taxes it would concentrate the mind on who they were voting for.

The so-called polltax riots were caused by yobs who'd never paid any direct taxes before and didn't want start paying any.

It was weak government that got rid of the poll tax.

the so called poll tax riots started out as the people of this country protesting against an unfair tax system . if i remember rightly this was one of the biggest protests of the time . the riots started because a number of yobs kicked off against the police so dont blame the rest of the lawabiding protesters for this .id like to think that if we saw the same amount of (lawabiding) protesters today maybe whoever gets into government will take note and people power may change some of the current issues facing the country today . the french people seem to stick together when its government annouces things its people dont like .(maybe we need to do the same more often ?)

[HeadingNorth]

the so called poll tax riots started out as the people of this country protesting against an unfair tax system .

 

 

Nobody ever did explain what was unfair about it, beyond "I don't want to pay and I'm not going to."

[Gormenghast]

This does bring up a second problem, though; rich people living in wealthy parts of the country (Berkshire? Kent?) will pay a relatively low local tax, but people living in poor areas will pay relatively high ones. If the whole of the local council's spending is generated by the local people, poor areas suffer.

 

But it's not. Most of it comes from central government funding.

[ricgem2002]

Nobody ever did explain what was unfair about it, beyond "I don't want to pay and I'm not going to."

try googling it and find out what the power of the people can do when sticking together

[Dick]

The poll tax was no more unfair than council tax.

It wasn't flat rate, those on lowest income paid about £65.

It was certainly regressive, but no more so than council tax, but it was fair in that if you had a vote everyone had to pay something.

I wonder why someone doesn't oraganise council tax riots?