Council Tax - Mad and Bad!!

10.06.00pm UTC (GMT +0000) Sun 5th Oct 2003

In response to a letter from Pensioner Roy Hathaway in the Crawley News, Lib Dem Councillor Gordon Seekings responded by agreeing that Council Tax is both unfair and outmoded.

One alternative to the hated Council Tax may be to increase the number of Council Tax bands but it would, at best, be only a short term solution. The much better way of course would be to make payments fixed to the ability to pay. To do that you need a system such as Local Income Tax.

Local Income Tax is not a new system and is one that is used extensively round the world. The system means that each person pays according to their means. There are no need for complicated rebate forms as at present and it means that those who deserve to pay less actually pay less. It can also be collected through the PAYE scheme in exactly the same way that the existing Income Tax is collected.

The scheme is one the Liberal Democrats have supported for many years and was submitted by them to central government as an alternative to the even more unfair Conservative Poll Tax. The scheme received widespread support then from many financial institutions as being easy to collect, fair to those paying, and above all easy to administer. However the Tories rejected it and instead introduced the present system with the full support of New Labour.

Unless New Labour have a complete change of heart the present system will be with us for many years to come.

For more information on the Liberal Democrats campaign to get rid of the hated Council Tax got to www.axethetax.org.uk