Tories misrepresent our Council Tax proposals

12.00.00am UTC (GMT +0000) Thu 20th May 2004

The Liberal Democrats have campaigned for many years to replace the unfair Council tax with Local Income Tax, where people pay according to their means. However a recent leaflet distributed by the Conservative Party misrepresents our Local Income Tax proposals.

The Conservatives state that a working couple would pay £547 per annum more under Local Income Tax. They fail to tell you that would apply to what they consider to be an "average working couple" earning £37,000 a year in a Band A property - and there are only a handful of those in Crawley!

The Liberal Democrats proposals work out at approx. 3.75% of taxable income. e.g. if a couple were earning a combined taxable income of £38,000 per annum, they would pay £1425 per annum. Currently Band E property Council Tax is £1439, so they would pay slightly less.

Pensioners on £12,000 taxable income per annum would pay only £450 per annum. On a Band C property (at present £1047 per annum) they would save £597, a 57% decrease.

Clearly everyone's case is different so check for yourself at www.axethetax.org.uk