Council tax is a c**t

[Upholstery]

What kind of a tax doesn't take account of how much money you have? It's all just a bloody con.

Id go back to land tax, farmers would be exempt as long as the farm land is actually farmed

Does that satisfy the objective of re-election ?

And it's telling you say "back to". Why did we move away from that initially ?

Mine's band C, and I pay £153 a month after the 25% discount for being the sole occupier.

Over 10 months or 12? Either way is still far less than than the£400 a month that a PP complaining about. And if she doesn't get a single person discount there is at least 2 of them to pay it

Twelve months.

The full c/tax is £2,335, iirc.

Not really. We pay 3.5k per year on a pretty average 3 bed house, in a pretty average area - band E.

The cost of council tax doesn't relate to cost of area. For a similar size property in London we paid about half as much as we do living more rurally.

Just think, in 10 years it'll go up 50% (not including compound....) and the services you get will be far worse... its an unsustainable system.

We're with the same council. It's the exact same council doing the bins, the only thing that's changed is the band. We've only moved 10 minutes away from our old house.
My opinion on council tax remains unchanging - in my old house in Band A, I had similar frustrations about the bill. I still worried about the heating and paying for my food and I still despise paying council tax with the fury of a thousand suns. If we didn't have to pay it, life would be infinitely easier to afford. That's my opinion and your patronising response won't change that.
I can moan as much as I like. FUCK COUNCIL TAX FA LA LA LA LA.
"How else should local services be funded"? How are they funded in Northern Ireland, where they don't pay council tax? They pay domestic rates - which even includes their water bill.
Here in England, council tax goes up every year for increasingly poorer services and we just bend over and accept it.
The whole system needs rethinking and sorting out but it'll never happen bc we just accept these increases and, according to you, we're not even allowed to moan about them.
I won't be replying to you again - we disagree and that's the nature of life and the internet.
P.S. Fuck council tax.

Didn’t we used to pay rates in the UK before the 90s?

Yes. I can remember my parents moaning about them! Plus ca change and all that!

They were probably more reasonable especially if they included water

I'm ancient, so can remember paying rates, which was the system pre- poll tax.

The amount payable was based on two factors: the "rateable value" of the home, so not dissimilar to to council tax but variable rather than in set bands, and the amount payable for each £1 of rateable value.

The council worked out how much money they needed, subtracted any grants (they got some central government funding) and projected income, and divided what was left by the total sum of all rateable values in the council's area. That gave them the rate in the pound that they needed to charge. Iirc, there was no single occupier discount, but people on low incomes could qualify for a "rate rebate" which was a variable discount according to how low their income was.

Rateable values were as much of a lottery as council tax bands seem to be, and newer houses always seemed to have higher RVs than older ones of similar size. And people still moaned, just like they did about the poll tax and still do about council tax.

Yes the F&G bands are bizarre where we live

exactly the same house in RM a street away and one is G and the other F

And that’s the rub. No matter how they decide to tax people, value of property, on your earnings, individually or as a household someone won’t like it and will complain.

Band A and pay £133 a month with single person discount. That is over 10 months, I live in the second most expensive council tax area in the country in a shit hole of an area that so dirty and disgusting I never invite people round

I don’t know what the fair way of charging is. It means different things to everyone,
Should people pay more if they use the services? Yes I’m in favour of that. What that comes down to is adults paying for their own care. Not expecting the tax payer to pay around £1250 per week to house them in nursing homes. Or people taking responsibility for their own children.
So do we do like some other countries and say you/ your family will look after you when you get dementia?
Should we cap how much the taxpayer funds. Personally yes, I don’t think it’s fair that some people pay for care whilst others get it free.
The same with children. Parents should be taking more responsibility for their own DCs. Perhaps once you have a child in care, you should be persuade to be sterilised, both males and females.
Either way this is where our money is going.
Maybe those not paying for social care should receive very basic care.
If I was in charge I would go further. A very stripped down health care service for those who haven’t paid much into it. Those who have paid in more get priority. Those who keep doing the same thing which makes them ill don’t get seen quickly.
You haven’t saved for your funeral, you don’t get to face the same service as someone who pays. You get cremated whenever and wherever without your relatives in attendance. The cheapest way.
Parents who don’t adhere to the advice given by professionals get their family allowance taken away. Maybe it will punish the children but why should the tax payer keeping funding feckless parents.

I also remember the poll tax riots. No government will be crazy enough to bring the poll tax back.

A huge portion of council tax does go on social care. I am ok with that. It is not just about elderly in care home, or disabled children. It is the adults in between. Those with learning disabilities etc. How can they self fund their care? In fact, many do to a point with their benefit payments.
The people who get care for free do so because if they didn't, they would get no care at all. It is not about punishing people who have money, it is making sure those without are looked after.
What is the alternative?

You can't force someone to look after a parent with dementia. Some need 24/7 supervision. Some people are NC with their parents, or live far away.

I knew someone who had a child in care. She had MH issues that she managed to over come. She had another child, and got her first child back. You can't make someone be sterilised. That is a very slippery slope to go down.

People disabled from birth wont have paid much into the system at all. They are the most vulnerable among us. They need and deserve proper care and dignity.
What does the a very stripped down health service look like for them? Something like a prison cell with a hatch for food and meds?

Do you know many people under 60 who have actually saved for their funeral?
To be fair, the cheapest way is already a thing for people who have not made funeral plans. That has always been a thing. Some people are actually opting for that out of choice now.

"Family allowance" 😂that term just shows you are really out of touch anyway.

Xenovitch so you are presumably happy to work until you are very old to pay for all of this. You must also be happy for any children you have to pay tax and NI and not receive any state pension. What happens to the next generation? How do they survive in retirement?
People are moaning about how much this is costing them.
The facts are this: you either accept higher taxes. Including council tax, or you reduce services. You cannot have both.
Would you prefer a reduced emergency service? Or all libraries to close. Or a reduced bus and train service? Or the council to stop providing lighting on the streets. Or to stop collecting your bins, or to sell if every single green space it owns.
Many counties operate on the basis of citizens doing more for themselves. Not all countries allow the feckless to receive as many free benefits as the UK does.
You can’t have it both ways.
Do you really think that most people want to live for years on end as a virtual cabbage? Would they still choose to spend years in a care home knowing that they or their family would have to pay for it?
If men knew from the start that every child they fathered would cost them money then I do think it would reduce the number of DCs these men had.

Oh and yes my mum saved hard for her funeral. She did without other things.
Read the actual lived experience of people on this thread, those who have worked and paid taxes. Many are worse off in retirement than the ones who have not paid into the system.

I don't mind paying it. I do mind my LA who, if an instalment is late, go straight to a summons (they actually have their own office at the County Court). And the single person discount should be 50%.

I don't mind paying council tax for services in general. There has to be some method of raising that money. However, it becomes an issue for me, and lots of others I know, when the service provided by the local authority isn't good.

We all use services, they have been listed a few times on this thread. We all benefit from those services and it is right that we all contribute. There is no system that everyone will be happy with.

There are other issues that I think are much more pressing to be honest. Cost of living, wage stagnation, lack of secure jobs, loss of industry. I think it is generally much more palatable for everyone to pay their way in the country if there is a feeling that the country is succeeding and they have opportunity.

Well some people gain more than others. Some people pay more than others.
Should it be a pay per use system, in so much as it can be, that’s the question.
Should those who cost tax payers more pay more, and if so how?

Sparklesandspandexgallore well said you speak common sense.

Those opposing the practicalities probably do not pay tax but claim they do because they pay VAT!!! They believe money is infinite. Their naivety will hasten the collapse of the system to the detriment of everyone.

My council gave a loan to a certain other council, who then went bankrupt.

Now they have increased our council tax to recover lost money. It’s not right, nor fair.

I live in what you would call a deprived area, yet our council tax is extortionate. The rapid increase of those claiming CT support increases yearly, and it’s those who pay it outright are they ones left counting the pennies.

The vast amount of SEND children has also increased, from what we have gathered it because rentals are cheaper here so surrounding LAs often house families with SEND here. Which puts even more burden on the already overstretched services. IMO money for SEN children should come from central government and it needs to be fair. These kids shouldn’t be let down because the council is skint