ollyvee

Surely the poll tax was a fairer way forward than the current council tax.You could have a household with 5 working members and they would pay equally under the poll tax where they would only pay one council tax,but I had better shut up as its .Is Kirsty

Rolzysmum

What was wrong with the old housing rates? You paid your rates and that was it.

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I want it all - and I want it NOW!!!

Sal

ollyvee

There was nothing wrong with the rates,Mrs T only made it so everyone should pay.Say if you had two houses next door to one another,both rated in the same band identical in size,living in one you have 2 doctors who have 3 children still at home,two are solicitors and one is still at school.How much money is coming in weekly?Next door you have an 82 year old widow on a limited income,she is paying the same each year as her wealthy neighbours.To pay the old ladies tax she might have to go without a bit of heating or a meal or new clothes,whats fair about that?

Albatros

I'm with you, in principle, Olly.

However the method of addressing the unfairness was clearly not the poll tax.

No one seems willing to propose another solution because it could spell political suicide.

The long term solution may lie in the rumblings about 'local income tax'.

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hopper

The one thing about the rates system was that by and large it reflected income levels as the more money you earned the better or more expensive house you lived in.

The little old lady analogy just doesn't work, yes she maybe on a fixed income but surely in a similar house she is more than likely to not have a mortgage etc.

Where the poll tax fell down (IMO) was that there was no element of means testing in it and so as you had a little old lady living in a large detached house in its own grounds living next door to a family of doctors and solicitors ALL paying the same as the person living in the council house who is only just earning enough to keep their heads above water.

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at Tenerife Times

IREALLYAMLINDA

Poll Tax was one of my soap box issues and I'm sorry to say I refused to pay and went to court!!! I was not working at the time and was billed for Poll Tax, as was my husband. My argument was that my only source of personal income was my child benefit which meant that if I paid Poll Tax I would be paying it with money meant to benefit my children. My husband who was in full time employment paid his Poll Tax and rightly so. But how was I supposed to pay it? If my husband paid it for me then he would have been paying double. Would that have been fair? Would it have been fair to pay it with my child benefit?
Actually when I went to court I did have SOME degree of sympathy, but that didn't get me far - I still had to cough up in the end!!!!
I think there should only be one form of rates/council tax/poll tax/ whatever you want to call it for each house. But I also agree that a single person shouldn't have to pay the same amount as a family with umpteen kids, that issue also needs to be addressed. "Addressed" ! ha!~

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doreen martin

i 100% agree with you you knew where you were with the rates. everything was all in and there was no problems like there are now.

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Daverock

It's not an easy one to come up with a solution. We lived in a large ex-mining village in a borough that included a lot of very affluent areas. The effect was than when the poll tax was introduced we paid almost double what we had under the rates system. There were only 2 of us in the house. Both in our 20's and not earning that much at the time.

In principle I agreed with what the poll tax was trying to address but in practise I had to oppose it and I'm sure that my example shows why that was.

Is it fair to be taxed more for owning a bigger more expensive property?

Is it fair that similar houses - one with 2 people and one with 6 pay the same?

Should it be income based?

No solution will make everyone happy.

doreen martin

what i didnt like was the way scotland was used as guinea pigs for the poll tax when it was interduced it should have been to the whole country. didn't agree with it then and don't agree with it now

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ollyvee

The local income tax is a fairer way and i see what Doreen mentions about trawling it through Scotland first,but some things that are tried in Scotland are never tried here and they work in Scotland,this slightly off topic but the care package comes to mind.Maybe the old lady does'nt have a mortgage but she has the same maintainance on the property.Can you see you could have £10,000 a week going in there if they were all professional people,doctors,lawyers etc,now where is the fairness in that.