I HATE paying Council Tax. It's the bill I hate the most.

[flashbac]

Council Tax is regressive and unfair.

It takes more money from lower income individuals.

It has no link to the actual value of a property.

In addition to linking council tax to value, the bands also need to increase in range in order to reflect the vast difference in property values.

How can it be right that a million pound property in Westminster is the same or (often lower) CT rate than a 2 up, 2 down house in Yorkshire?

@Pumpkinstace

I live in a small terraced house and earn 12k a year.

My brother is in a 4 bed detached and earns 60k.

We pay the same.

Do you use less services than he does?

Yanbu, my council (in Scotland) spend more than 50% of the tax raised on pensions every year. Not long ago they spent more than a million on just 3 people.

[quote wedwewerpink]@flashbac thanks, in Ireland we don't pay council tax but we have a bit that is taken out with tax for the same reasons. (Except for waste we pay ourselves) so in theory if you don't earn you don't pay. [/quote]
Ireland has a yearly local property tax, which is based on the value of your house.

Funny this thread popped up I was just thinking about how stupid UK taxes are especially council tax is when I was walking home from a medical appointment.

I've worked abroad and was taxed more. However I didn't feel put out because the money I got after that was all mine. No silly council tax and water rates to pay on top.

Yes it meant I paid more than someone who earned less than me, but then someone else who earned more than me paid more.

In my case taking it of my earnings meant I actually had more money left than I had working in the UK on a similar salary.

Poor areas tend to need more social services , card etc that the local council is expected to provide

Meaning poorer communities need to raise more cash

It's classic rich people not wanting to help fund society as a whoke

If you look at what it pays for it should probably be a flat tax paid equally by all adults. They tried that in the 1980s. Didnt go down well.

@PersonaNonGarter

Scottish council tax is eye watering. We pay £4K plus.

And no, the services aren’t great for that.

Isn't it just decided the same as English?

Mine is £1200

@PinkFootstool

Please post proof of the London v Yorkshire tax difference , never heard that one.

I live in the most expensive CT area in my county. I'm also certain we are incorrectly banded (too high) but can't get the proof of house sales from the relevant dates.

I challenged my banding, as we are in the same band as the rest of the street who have 4 bedrooms and we have 3. We are on a little infill development of 5 houses and, as suspected, we were blanket-banded to same. I can’t remember the detail of what I did, but I had to contact the local valuation office, and I ended up with a cheque for all the overpayments I’d be charged from my council. What I do remember was that it was surprisingly easy!! I definitely didn’t have house prices.

If you think you’re in the wrong band, think about challenging it.

@ManifestDestinee it is fairly minimal though...mine is less than 200euro.

Yes it’s flawed, as pp mentioned, so was poll tax and rates. The bands are reset only rarely, and I guess it’s a big undertaking to do that ; meantime the bands serve as a ratio with which to apportion the council budget.
Hence smaller councils may often have higher taxes as they have fewer households and businesses to share the load.
It is supposed to be local, but here in Scotland, our central government claws back taxes from some councils to maintain their voter base elsewhere.

[quote wedwewerpink]@ManifestDestinee it is fairly minimal though...mine is less than 200euro.[/quote]
You just said it doesn't exist, yet you know what yours is? If yous is less than 200e your house is worth less than 100,000e (or you've told them it does anyway).
It goes up to 1800e a year, and the average paid is about 700e a year.

@midgemagneto do you think it's because London councils can easily move poor people outside London and hence don't need to house them? And that a lot of vulnerable older people tend to downsize outside London.

My Band D property in a market town in the North West is just over £2000 a year.

In Kensington a Band D is £1313.

Council Tax is grossly unfair and regressive.

I think it's a regressive tax as well and it's also taken out of already taxed income. I'd prefer it to go on normal tax and every council gets the same £ per head from central government and provides the same services. There could be some variations for demographics eg if you have a particularly elderly population.

What really annoys me is the one thing that everyone sees for their council tax is rubbish disposal, and councils are always trying to reduce it, whether by reducing tip opening hours or stopping garden waste collections (which are a chargeable extra in most places, anyway).

£4K in Scotland! How on earth does anyone afford that?

I think it needs an overhaul, but I look at it in a similar way to @TheYearOfSmallThings and think it's not too bad value for what we use. Bins collected, street lighting, library, a few nice parks and playgrounds near us, schools when I view it like that it makes me feel better

TV licence is much more offensive.

@Porcupineintherough

If you look at what it pays for it should probably be a flat tax paid equally by all adults. They tried that in the 1980s. Didnt go down well.

There were reasons for that though - it was a bad policy and using 1980s technology it was difficult and expensive to collect. At the time, although theoretically fairer it was a fucking stupid thing to do, insisted upon by a stupid and nasty prime minister who refused to accept the logic of why it wouldn't work.

Lib Dems have been proposing a local income tax for some time.

I'm fed up with the way it goes up practically every year and yet the services don't improve. If anything they get worse.

I live in a rundown town in West Yorkshire. I rent a band C property and my council tax is £1712.52, a band C property in Westminster is £735.61.

@ManifestDestinee I said it doesn't exist, I meant in a monthly sense and yes...I forgot about the property tax to be honest as mine is actually exempt until this year I think. I looked at the calculator and as we have extended I will have to get my house revalued but going on purchase price it's around 200 I think. With extension it's around 350ish...we'll see I suppose.

You’d hate life more if there was no council tax or the amenities it proveds.

Bin men, you’d really, really fucking miss them.
Street lights. You’d probably moan if they didn’t exist too
Local education. Do you want you kids at school with no lights? Heat? Pencils?
Social workers.
Fire brigade.
Library, maybe you don’t use read or use the child friendly entertainment during holidays.
Parks.
Road maintenance. Who loves a pot hole? Op apparently.
Trading standards.
Environmental health, but maybe you love a cockroach infested takeaway.
Births marriages and deaths, administered by your local council. Without them you’d be screwed.

I remember the riots when it was initially introduced under the name poll tax, it wasn't well received.

Whether my home is with millions or not is irrelevant. I use these amenities. I don’t use them more because I’m rich or live in a big house.

Council tax is poll tax. Except it’s even higher but you get to divide it up amongst the adults in a household. Why people were so easily fooled is beyond me - the poll tax seemed fairer than this.

[quote onlychildhamster]@PinkFootstool

Example from that video:

£30 million Westminster property with private lift - £1508
£127,000 property in Peterlee (where is that?)- £1702

My £400k 2 bed flat- £1,511.99
My friend in Yorkshire whose terrace is worth probably 25% of my flat pays £200 more than me.[/quote]
Peterlee is in County Durham. Unless it has changed it isn’t an affluent area. DD and her friend used to go once a year to dance, we live in a different county.A choreographer from London used to come up and teacher them.

Ours isn’t very expensive but we have no mains gas or sewerage. Bins are now fortnightly and the roads are shocking, full of potholes. One is so bad we never go drive down it.