Tony

I would eliminate council tax as it is unfair and replace it with a local income tax. This would work in such a way as it would be added to the national income tax for collection purposes so according to where you lived, you would pay income tax plus a point or two which belongs to the county council for local expenditure. The Council would be subject to an audit as to how it spent the money and certain items would be guaranteed such as funding of schools for instance. They would not have the freedom to fund ridiculous projects. They would submit an annual budget which would be funded from central funds.

Local councils are the key to returning power to the people but they have to be curbed from their more silly items of expenditure, this is done by the budget and by the audit.

Fundamentally, any tax is acceptable provided it doesn't hurt too much and both fuel and council taxes have exceeded that point.

Don't forget that if we leave the union we can get rid of VAT altogether and replace it with a sales tax.

Tony

Anthony Butcher

Local Income Tax isn't fair either; why should I pay five times as much to have my bins collected as the person next door?

It may be the most workable solution, but let's not kid ourselves that this is fair

Tony

The proportion of council precept allocated to bin collection is quite small. And bear in mind that the tax burden seldom decreases it is merely collected differently and spread differently.

If you have a flat income tax and no council tax you actually pay the council nothing at all. You pay your normal federal income tax but according to county or area or region in which you live you will pay slightly higher tax another one percent say, than someone in a county elswhere, and this is balanced by not paying council tax. The local council has submitted a budget which is met entirely from central funds haveing previously been audited to ensure their estimates of expenditure are real and they are not robbing peter to pay the lesbian cross dressers against condoms or some such. This also means that only earners pay because it is attached to income tax. An oap would end up paying little or nothing.

The USA has a pretty much a flat rate tax but it is a more cumbersome system. Essentially everyone is self employed and one fills out a tax return every year and can claim back all sorts of things, just like a self employed person here, and then the government sends them a cheque, or in their case a check.


Not only is this is fairer because all earners pay, but you will end up paying less overall, whereas with rates and council tax the housholder pays according to the number of people in the house, even if they are not earning and just drawing benefit. How fair is that?

Actually the only fairer tax is a poll tax, think about it.

Remember the whole taxation structure will change and therefore most of these problems will disappear.

Tony

Biscuitman

FLAT TAX - I'm helping out on a motion on this for conference... believe me ours will be bigger and better and more radical.

Bear in mind that the other party (one party 3 different names), will not be able to implement any tax reforms because ofm EU tax harmonisation.

You might also like to read about the Treasury skullduggery on the subject:-

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main...19/ntax119.xml

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IF THE EU WAS THE ANSWER, IT MUST HAVE BEEN A STUPID QUESTION!

Tom Collier

Biscuitman,
If we do go for flat tax I hope you can assure me it will be at a high rate, say 30%. I can only support it if we go back to relying more on direct than indirect tax.

Like I say, I would favour two rates ideally.

Hartlepool

How can we have a Flat Tax Policy if we have TWO rates? :?

Tom Collier

We can`t. I am advocating something different from the party line.

Hartlepool

OK,Thanks Tom. :?

Tom Collier

Still confused?

Hartlepool

No,not now.