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Council Tax Discussion Forum The Campaign for the Reform of Council Tax
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Was the Poll tax a FAIRER tax than CT |
Yes |
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78% |
[ 11 ] |
No |
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21% |
[ 3 ] |
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Total Votes : 14 |
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Mickey Guest
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alastair
Joined: 22 Nov 2005 Posts: 102 Location: Lanarkshire
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Margie
Joined: 23 Nov 2005 Posts: 349 Location: Longest cul de sac in England - Furness
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christine Site Admin

Joined: 21 Nov 2005 Posts: 5467 Location: Hampshire
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Mickey Guest
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Posted: Sun Sep 24, 2006 11:40 am Post subject: |
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Quote: | Surely Income tax must be the ultimate means test |
No - this is where I disagree - it takes no acount of wealth, pocessions, outgoings, commitments
Say a young couple, one works, one brings up kids until they are of school age ( I don't agree with fobbing them off onto someone else at the earliest opportunity). Modest income, but mortgage, kids clothes to buy, travel to work costs, prescription charges, eye sight test charges, etc. etc.
Compare to pensioner, own house, lots of pocessions aquired over lifetime. This person may have more DISPOSABLE income than younger person with higher weekly income.
Can't just compare weekly income - too simplistist |
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christine Site Admin

Joined: 21 Nov 2005 Posts: 5467 Location: Hampshire
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Mickey Guest
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Posted: Wed Sep 27, 2006 9:00 am Post subject: |
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Quote: | where a family received marriage allowance |
Why should a married couple receive an allowance? |
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Mo-East Devon
Joined: 21 Nov 2005 Posts: 1732 Location: East Devon
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Archie White
Joined: 24 Nov 2005 Posts: 2240 Location: Glasgow
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Posted: Wed Sep 27, 2006 6:31 pm Post subject: |
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ickey
You have a point. I think that we need a whole range of taxes to approach the impossible goal of absolute fairness (even if we could agree on what constitutes absolute fairness) – including income tax, capital gains tax, inheritance tax (or, better, a capital transfer tax), corporation tax, VAT, etc etc.
But most taxes are more suitable as national taxes. In my view only an income-based tax (whether nationally or locally set) is suitable as a tax for local government funding. (No space here to elaborate on this). Or, of course, we could simply raise all national taxes pro-rata, and fund local government entirely by central government grants - at present 75% of local government funding, on average, is funded by central government grants.
Council Tax is grossly unfair. It bears no relation to income, or even to other disposable assets.
The Poll Tax was even worse. People on £10,000 a year or less (in today’s money) paid exactly the same as those on £100,000 or more. How can that be fair? A fair Poll Tax, related to ability to pay, would be indistinguishable from an income-based tax.
By the way, I agree with you about the marriage allowance – and I say this as a happily-married man 90% of the time. Why indeed should people get an allowance just for being married? In fact, two people living together, both with jobs and with no children, can certainly live more cheaply than single people. It is, of course, a different matter if one partner stays at home to look after young children or elderly relatives – but then the appropriate benefit is some form of child allowance or carer’s allowance, not a marriage allowance as such.
Archie |
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Mickey Guest
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