Published: Tuesday, 30th December, 2008 2:59pm
2009 must see end of unfair council tax
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YET again, the Labour Party proclaims its love of the discredited council tax by trying to rubbish the proposed and much fairer Local Income Tax (LIT) favoured by the SNP and Lib Dems in both Fife Council and the Scottish Parliament.
This time it's David Whitton, the Labour finance spokesman at Holyrood, who tries in a recent pronouncement to claim that a LIT to replace council tax is the 'last thing' that Scotland needs at this time.
How come? No-one likes paying any kind of tax but is it not better to have a personal tax like LIT that is actually based on the ability to pay rather than the crude council tax with all its unfairness and complications?
It's amazing to think that all this criticism of a fairer LIT comes from a party that once claimed to be 'the party of the people'!
Over the years, Tony Blair and Gordon Brown have put an end to all that.
Labour shows their complete ignorance of taxation realities by quoting the costs of collecting a replacement LIT without mentioning the huge workload which would be removed from Fife Council and others with the abolition of council tax.
Do Mr Whitton and his Labour friends not realise how much it costs to administer and collect council tax in Fife, to say nothing of chasing up non-payments, etc?
By contrast, LIT would be far easier and less costly to collect through the PAYE system, with the simple addition of any extra line of computer code.
Labour talks further nonsense by referring to LIT making 'Scotland the highest taxed part of the UK'.
This is a blatant lie as Labour simply omits the planned abolition of the hated council tax, over which Labour has no plans.
What I would admit to is that Scotland could well become the fairest taxed part of the UK, an objective that seems to have escaped the New Labour brains of Labour in Fife Council and at Holyrood.
The SNP and the Lib Dems at Holyrood still have to work out a scheme to introduce actual council tax rates.
I am confident that this will happen and 2009 will be the year when the unfair council tax will finally meet its end.
Councillor William G Walker, SNP councillor, West Fife and Coastal Villages
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G Manzie
(Unregistered User)
May 31 09 14:09
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I completely disagree with this article, and I am frankly amazed at the ignorance of its author. I am further startled to find out this individual is in a position of authority and influence, and has a hand in policy making.
There is a vast canon of literature on property tax, and the overwhelming majority will tell you that a property based taxation system is the most cost effective to operate. This is the academic consensus, which is collated through independant research with absolutely no political adgenda, something Cllr Walker will never appreciate.
I am afraid a tax on income, although sounding great in practice, would clearly not be as easy as 'adding a few extra lines of code'. Yes this would work for everyone who gets payed throught the PAYE system, but what about those that don't? What about those who gain their income through inheritance, or interest from money in the bank. What about those that could technicaly just shift their income south of the border and give nothing to the Scottish economy? Again, I will refer Cllr Walker to academic research, which states that income tax is far easier to evade than a property tax. You can't hide a house.
I will admit that we need a revaluation of domestic property. I will also concede that we need more bands, taxing those with the very large properties more. We also need a better system of allowances for those that cannot afford the tax of their home, for example pensioners. However, in a country where we have a chronic shortage of housing stock for families etc, and would hesitate to suggest perhaps a gentle persuasion for our older generation to down size from their large family home to something more appropriate is perhaps not the worst thing in the world. Emotive, but practicle.
I will not accept however that just because a taxation system has been neglected for 16 years that it be completely scrapped. It needs looked at for sure, but what we do not need is a reactionary government with ill conceived ideas that have had absolutely no research at all.
G Manzie
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May 31 09 14:15
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I completely disagree with this article, and I am frankly amazed at the ignorance of its author. I am further startled to find out this individual is in a position of authority and influence, and has a hand in policy making.
There is a vast canon of literature on property tax, and the overwhelming majority will tell you that a property based taxation system is the most cost effective to operate. This is the academic consensus, which is collated through independant research with absolutely no political adgenda, something Cllr Walker will never appreciate.
I am afraid a tax on income, although sounding great in practice, would clearly not be as easy as 'adding a few extra lines of code'. Yes this would work for everyone who gets payed throught the PAYE system, but what about those that don't? What about those who gain their income through inheritance, or interest from money in the bank. What about those that could technicaly just shift their income south of the border and give nothing to the Scottish economy? Again, I will refer Cllr Walker to academic research, which states that income tax is far easier to evade than a property tax. You can't hide a house.
I will admit that we need a revaluation of domestic property. I will also concede that we need more bands, taxing those with the very large properties more. We also need a better system of allowances for those that cannot afford the tax of their home, for example pensioners. However, in a country where we have a chronic shortage of housing stock for families etc, and would hesitate to suggest perhaps a gentle persuasion for our older generation to down size from their large family home to something more appropriate is perhaps not the worst thing in the world. Emotive, but practicle.
I will not accept however that just because a taxation system has been neglected for 16 years that it be completely scrapped. It needs looked at for sure, but what we do not need is a reactionary government with ill conceived ideas that have had absolutely no research at all.
Joe fae Rosyth
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Jul 9 09 04:44
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I laugh at you all. You would not fight the poll tax when you had too and what you pay now is the result.
You all reap what you sew.... lololololol
I never paid a penny in poll tax. I continue to utterly refuse to do so. I pay this tax and its a dream compared to the poll tax. I could fight it but why bother.....nobody else does so unless you are prepared to fihgt, quit moaning about it.
Greg
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Aug 7 09 19:00
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Reap what we sew? Or sow?
Can\'t take a tax dodger seriously.
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