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Originally Posted by Charlie_Bubble
National government has had access to my tax records, to my knowledge local government doesn't.
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But if it's collected by PAYE it shouldn't matter, should it?
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Surely, a tax on peoples income should be on their income now, not last year. This would be as unfair as this current system or the poll tax.
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Most people's incomes don't change massively from one year to the next. Those that do can appeal with reasonable proof. Also if you're self-employed and self-assessed, your tax is based on last year's figures already.
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Why should local councils trust the central government to collect and hand over this money.
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I would hope (although my cynicism is saying "hah!" at the moment!) that the system was designed to be transparent enough that it would be easy to see if the central government was bilking the system for their benefit and it could be questioned.
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The whole problem at the moment is that they collect business rates for the government, which hands it back due to their own formula. If this is the case, what is to say that people living in certain areas won't be subsidising others once again, making the concept of a 'local' tax completely false!
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Well that's the current system with Council Tax as well, ie the government allegedly giving money to Labour areas in the North at the cost of those in the South.
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The rate at which houses have risen since 1991 would presumably be fairly constant in local areas, meaning it doesn't matter if it's the value of your house now or 15 years ago, it's still a house.
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Not in the slightest! There are "fashionable areas" (even in a small city like Portsmouth) where house prices have gone through the roof whilst only a few miles away the rate of increase has been much less.
If you've been living in one of those areas since before when house prices were assessed, you could be faced with a massive rise in tax through no fault of your own.