What was the Poll Tax?

[dogsod]

I'm too young to remember it and I can't for thw life of me figure it out. It was going to be a community charge that was replaced by council tax anyway? What's the difference?
What would it have cost you and what was it for?

I have googled it and it just comes up with long, pages and pages. Can anyone give me a clue please. Its brought up a lot on here and I'm getting a bit grumpy reading it and not knowing what it is

Also
why was it called poll tax. why is it a poll?

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poll_tax_(Great_Britain)

Each person in the house paid it. God,I remember the riots!!

It's a fixed tax where everyone pays the same amount regardless of income or ability to pay.

Sometimes it's good to read through pages and pages.
A potted view will lack nuances.

Before council tax, we had "rates" which was similar to council tax in that it was based on the value of homes. Then the community charge was introduced which was then based on people rather than homes so a person living in a mansion paid the same as someone living in a one bedroom flat. It was called the "poll tax" because people tried to avoid it by staying off the electoral roll.

Head.
Per head not per household.

Like council tax, but for people rather than houses.

A single person in a massive house paid half of the tax of a couple in a small flat.

It wasn't popular.

Before pol tax you paid 'rates' it was quite cheap.
Poll tax so such extortionate rates, taking people to court, prison etc
We all went nuts and took to the streets and rioted
They u turned
I didn't ever pay it 😬

Wasn't one of the contentious elements that individuals paid it? Unlike rates, which it replaced, which was paid by the household.

And it was nicknamed the poll tax because the poll tax had been a similar unpopular tax?

Even students had to pay it. It was a fixed amount that every member of the household had to pay, for families with more than 2 adults in the house it usually worked out a lot more expensive than the old housing rates which was similar to council tax in that it was per household based on size of property.

I personally think it was a good idea that every adult member had to contribute but they made the charge way too high and they should have had more exemptions.

A lot of MNs would have been better off from reading the property section as many are buying large expensive houses

It nearly ruined us. we were low earners living in a terraced house paying monthly rates of 18.90, the poll tax came in and all of a sudden we had to pay 90.00 per month. That was a whole weeks income.

No, it was called the Poll Tax because it was a tax per head (poll) not household.
eg taking a poll, a poll is a vote per head (person)

It was nicknamed poll tax because some people mistakenly thought that if they were not on the electoral register no one would know they were living there so wouldn't have to pay.

I can remember it well! It was an individual levy not a tax on a property. It went down like a sack of shit.

Comefromaway · Today 09:57
Even students had to pay it. It was a fixed amount that every member of the household had to pay, for families with more than 2 adults in the house it usually worked out a lot more expensive than the old housing rates which was similar to council tax in that it was per household based on size of property“

our College organised coaches and took hundreds of us to Central London to join the protest.

Not so. It was per head.

i don’t have all the answers to your questions but I was a young adult at the time it was introduced living in shared, rented houses. At the time if you rented, rates were included in your rent. Once the poll tax was introduced this was on the individual not the property. So all of a sudden the poorest in society (generally those who were renting in those days, there wasn’t such a big rental market then so if you did rent generally it was because you weren’t well off) had to find an incremental significant cost on top of their rent. Landlords did not of course decrease their rent to take account of the poll tax. So essentially property owners were in the same position or better off and non property owners/renters were significantly worse off. There were benefits but they were far less generous than today and if you were single and working, in however low paid the job, you got nothing.

People simply could not afford this new and significant cost that was in addition to their rent.

Hence large scale non payment, insecure living as people moved frequently to try to avoid it. It really split society in two. The haves (property owners) and have nots (renters).

It was imposed on Scotland a year earlier than elsewhere.

It's no wonder Thatcher is more loathed in Scotland than south of the border.

This is what I needed to understand. thank you!

Wow good for you lot rioting I don't blame you.

and well done pp for not ever paying it.

What about children? Someone said students had to pay it? or just adults regardless of whether they worked or still in education, sahm?

Exactly. But some people thought that by not being on the electoral register they would not be known as being a "head " in that house. They thought that they got the info on who was resident in the house from the electoral register.

Poll Tax is so called because it was supposed to be paid by every voter regardless of wealth, same amount for each person. Given that to some people £100 is a huge amount to have to find in a limited budget and to others £100 is pocket change, it is spectacularly unfair.

Most references to Poll Tax are talking about the version in 1990 which was swiftly abolished and replaced with council tax which scales up according to the size and value of your home as a way to link it to living standards, so it's a lot fairer.

But there have been other Poll Taxes in history too.

Dreadful, wasn't it? What a time.

@skilpadde that was what I was coming on to say!