Council tax & stamp duty reform

[PeonyPatch]

Who is in favour of this policy?! I think I might be…

Whatever it is,I have no doubt that I will be forking out for it. Council tax was ill founded from the start and a mad scrabble from the Tory disaster that was the Poll Tax. That was only brought in to stop landlords having to pay rates and visit it onto the tenant.
We moved a few years ago. The houses were identical in no of bedrooms and size. Old house was a D, thid is an F. Both south east, new house meginally cheaper. Our council tax is over £3k as it is. Its our largest bill and no way of reducing it.

I've read the report three times and other articles, and I agree with how you've read it and not the rude person. The local part is under the £500k but if your property is over £500k, the report says you will then pay an annual levy to central govt. It will be done by the owner. I'm a renter, single occupancy, band D. By the calculations, and current valuations in my area, the amount of the two levies will come to £1200 more per year than the council tax - so losing my single person discount too, I'll be £300 worse off a month and won't be able to afford to stay in my place. If I have to move again, that's it I'm done living and working in the UK.

Thank you.

I’m sorry to hear that you could be so much worse off if this comes in. I guess we have to try to think this is all speculation at this point and that she might do something different.

Thank you again.

This. Encouraging my DC who have good jobs that can be done anywhere not to buy a place in the UK. I don’t want them working their butts off to pay taxes to a useless incompetent government that is squandering resources on their parasite voters.

I’ll post it again

It’s not even just buying though. Renting they’ll still pay. Guess they’d have to move abroad.

And whilst I wouldn’t call labour (or any) voters parasites (?!), I do detest the current incarnation of the Labour party and all they supposedly ‘stand’ for.

We pay huge amounts of tax and get very little back. Without paying all the taxes I’m not sure where the money will come from to fund the bloated (ah if only it was ‘bloated’, it’s beyond that now.!What is it, morbidly obese to the point of being sick?), state benefit system.

Just talking to accountant today to put maximum pension allowance into private pension. That’s 60,000 max I think. So that’ll be 60,000 tax free investment each year. I wasn’t doing that before Labour. I’ll do it now. They’re going to get as little tax from us as possible. Which is a sad approach, and a far cry from previous years where I’ve felt socially responsible for others. Not now I’m afraid. Labour are stopping that goodwill. It’s about time they clamped down on big corp tax avoidance - when will that happen Labour?

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2024/apr/05/starbucks-paid-7-point-2m-in-uk-corporation-tax-despite-gross-profit-of-149m

The way they treat it is that 50% of the council tax is for the actual house itself - so one house's bin collections, road/pavement maintenance, street lights, etc. - and the other 50% is for the adult occupants, based on an expected average of two adults, thus if there's only one adult, they get a 50% discount of the personal element of the council tax.

I suppose there's also the thinking that a house with only one adult in is under-occupied - with that adult therefore having the privilege of more space to themselves; also that there are only a finite number of residential dwellings from which the council can collect council tax, so you would be otherwise depriving the council of their necessary budgeted income if you sought an 'extra' discount on the actual house element.

Of course, in the real world, most adults living on their own are not sitting pretty in happy privilege and living it up having a big old house all to themselves. As you say, a lot will be widowed; and although there will doubtless be a lot of contented single people, a great many of those in single-adult households will be people who were married/in a LTR and have since split up - or are unhappily single - and would very probably wish that they were able to be in a happy partnership.

Have the government - any government since it was instigated - ever actually explained why there have only ever been eight council tax bands?

Has a reason been given why people in (granted very nice) larger family houses in nicer neighbourhoods pay the same amount of CT as people living in huge opulent places and stately homes worth many millions?

It rather gives the blatant lie to the pretext of 'those with the broadest shoulders bearing the heaviest burden', when it comes to local taxes at least.

Except if it is a rental worth over £500k (so lots of London/SE). The report proposes that rental properties would come into the scheme immediately rather when next sold. So renters would get screwed immediately in parts of the country as their landlords would pass it on - in addition to the market-ups already coming in to comply with renters reform and property standards.

‘Look you absolute simpleton, the rates have been chosen to raise the same amount of money as current council tax and stamp duty. This point was made on this thread several times. If you’d actually bothered to engage with the plans and not had a knee jerk “Labour bad hur hur hur” reaction, you would have seen that.
The state of this country is self explanatory when you look at the reactions and (lack of) intelligent thought displayed on here.’

😂😂😂😂

So nice I’ve quoted you twice. Thanks for a good chuckle 🙊

The renters’ rights bill also limits a LL’s ability to increase rents. Once more, here’s how it will be calculated from the document itself. It is crystal clear that you only pay the council tax replacement each year, and SDLT only upon sale.

Yeah.. that’s why we sold a huge property in west London last year. Gave tenants good notice and option to buy. No use being LL any more.

Things have been stacked against amateur landlords for a while, tbh. I don’t think it’s bad, moving towards a more institutional/business landlord environment tbh.

Same - sold my rental as soon as Labour were elected as was obvious they would hammer landlords, so another well maintained rental property lost to the market as a direct result of their spite and incompetence.
Bought by a single man who works abroad and uses it while in the UK. So one fewer family can be housed.

How would it work for renters, like myself?

You’re not an owner, so would not pay anything directly and would no longer have to pay council tax. Your landlord may pass on his increased costs via rent, but the LL’s ability to pass on increases is limited to some extent via the rental reform bill.

Thank you so much

So if your landlord sells up -are you in a position to buy it, or would you then be chasing one of the diminishing number of rentals? A friend trying to rent a 2 bed flat around Oxford has found it impossible to find a place /they b are going to sealed bids -rentals!

So Labour are unashamedly going after the renters vote (those naive renters who are too shortsighted or thick to realise it will to an even greater shortage of rental property).

No, unfortunately I wouldn't be in a position to buy. However, I don't think he'll be selling up ..fingers crossed. I've been here for 5 years and would hate to leave.

He may have no choice if Labour rent controls mean he can’t put up the rent to cover the new taxes he would saving you from paying. Even with low interest rates, ROI is getting less on rental properties than get from other investments with much less hassle. And those who are hanging on for the capital gain will hammered by the increase in CGT.

I think I actually hate Rachel bloody Reeves 😕

Labour are not introducing rent controls, they are limiting how frequently a LL can raise rent.

And I have no problem with property being made less attractive as an investment. It’s a poor addition to the economy and doesn’t increase productivity; that money would be far better invested in goods-producing businesses and other service-based activities.