The method of calculating council tax liabilities is criminally arbitrary. A local income tax would be aligned with your ability to pay.

My nan and grandad lived in their ex-council house for years. When they bought it it wasn't worth very much but since then the postcode has gone on to be the second most expensive place for houses in Shropshire. Just because the value of their house increased sixfold in a decade doesn't mean they had more money yet when the council tax is revalued in England the council tax bill for that house will go up considerably.

A local income tax would mean low earners pay little or no extra tax whilst those that earn a lot of money will pay more. The individual tax burden will be based on the amount of money they earn. It's not a foolproof method of ensuring people only pay what they can afford but it's better than the modern-day equivalent of the window tax.

I have always feared a local income tax which would make tax more progressive and therefore worse for me .My income is mediocre but that is exactly the person any taxation must end up targeting as it is where most of the revenue inevitably is . I am rather surprised you are not in favour .

It is time for Council Tax to be scrapped.
I'm sure we all could give examples of its unfairness.Five wage earners in one household with only one in the similar house next door, both paying the same amount.If you're a man of the cloth you pay zero.
We all use council services,we all pollute, we adults should all pay a fair equal amount.

A local income tax in my opinion would be far fairer than the present local property tax.

I hope Salmond gets this away, as it would make a good test bed to see if it works and if so how to implement it throughout the kingdom.

Mmmmm! Some of this argument against Council Tax is very similar to the arguements put out by the Tories when the abolished rates and replaced it with the Poll Tax. - It seems some people will never learn.

It is also interesting to note that the Nationalist Nutcases can only make this work with a massive subsidy from the Welsh and English taxpayers.

Yup same old Nats "We are a proud nation, and here is our begging bowl"

GW

A young friend living in a bedsit pays the same as a band A two bed terrace .
What's the argument against more council tax bands top and bottom?

To GW
Council tax is in all but name the old rates. As James points out, it is highly unfair that a household with 5 wage earners pays the same council tax as a similar household inhabited by just a couple. (single people do get a 25% discount).

The real solution would be a community charge payable by all wage earners but as before, those who have never contributed to the community and never intend to do so would riot and call it a poll tax.

Good luck Mr Salmond I wish you well over this one.

Any method of raising cash from the populace is going to be unfair to somebody. If there was a perfect system that was inherently fair to all then I'm sure it would already be used widely.

Dare I suggest that in the world of practical politics that the least-worst option is usually the best choice? And before anyone asks, no, I don't know what the least-worst option is but ability to pay should be somewhere in the mix.

The council tax is unfair and having a local income tax would be a fairer option.There are a lot of ways for people to avoid the full rate of council tax but not a PAYE one. As other people have pointed out,a house with 5 or 6 wage earners use the same council services as a home with 2.
4 have a free ride.
In some cases there are a lot of workers crammed into dormitory accommodation for whatever reason and they also use all of our council services so should pay also.

I suspect the rub here is that as GW says, a local income tax which proposes to tax at least two-thirds of the people who do not pay now would be political suicide - irrespective of the fairness arguments. Also, if I live in Sandwell and work in Birmingham so my tax district is in Birmingham... who gets my local income tax?

And in areas of high unemployment and therefore greater deprivation, the local income tax will create a much lower income.

I'm sure there are solutions to these things, but are they solutions that require an army of civil servants to administer them.

The local income tax would probably be better than the current council tax but there is a good argument that other forms of wealth rather than income also should be taxed. I wonder what you think about the idea of a Land Tax.

http://www.labourland.org/