MUCH consternation and alarm has been raised by the recent revaluation of business premises, intended to realign the commercial rating system to keep up with inflation and current values. However, this is only part of the dilemma raised on the subject of local taxation.
The council tax is merely another name for domestic rates and it is not the name but the entire system which is fundamentally unjust. The rating system is just an archaic (since 1601) and lazy way of imposing a tax that is easy to levy whether it is fair or not. A building stands on a site and some professional is nominated to assess its notional rental.
Both in the case of commercial and domestic rating there is no real correlation between its Rateable Value, and in the case of a commercial property, its actual earning capacity, or in the case of a house or a flat, the actual number of occupants. A corporate entity should only be asked to make a contribution equal to its ability to pay and not some imposition that will push it into insolvency.
Domestic rating was introduced at a time when our society generally housed one family under one roof, or in the case of tenement property, one family per apartment. However, if you observe what is happening now with urban and suburban property, it is evident that there are many houses in multiple occupation. In the suburbs you will see in the evenings and overnight three and sometimes four cars parked for each house. The costs per household incurred by the council are directly proportional to the number of occupants. Water and drainage, refuse collection and so on are costs directly proportional to the number of adult occupants. Educational and social costs are clearly related to population numbers. Road repairs may well be proportionate to the number of service vehicles passing and to the number of cars in the area. Just because house A looks like house B does not mean each imposes the same liabilities on the local council.
The community charge was resisted by the Left because it was fair (they don’t do “fair”). Since any form of capitation fee would require registration and identification (although the National Insurance Numbers already exist) it would seem that some form of local income tax would be much more equitable. In the same way a turnover tax would be more realistic for local commercial taxation.
Peter D Christie,
Woodside, 2, Lomond Drive, Newton Mearns.
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