The council tax was introduced in the early nineties, following mass protest against Margaret Thatcher's Poll Tax, which she introduced 1 year ealier in Scotland than England. It was widley unpopular since it offered little concession for people on low incomes. The council tax that was introduced to replace it was also unpopular for largely the same reasons, although it is not quite as bad. The poll tax was introduced along the premise that everyone should pay exactly the same amout each year, regardless of their income, to pay for local and public services such as the police, and garbage collection etc. It was met with protest country wide in many forms, and there were violent riots in London. The most effective protest against it though it was mass non-payment, whereupon millions of people across the country refused to pay it. As a student at the time i refused to pay mine, I only had to pay 20% but still I couldn't afford it. Despite my mother offering to cover me, to this day I have not paid a single penny towards it out of principle. They were powerless to enforce it and basically had to drop every single case of tax avoidance, and replace it with something else, the Council Tax. The council tax works by charging houses a standard amount, based on location and other factors. It is decided by local councils, and its biggest failing is that it makes no discretion towards how many people live in the property, its the same as if there is 1 person, or if there is 3. Because of the influence that Bridget Jones was having amongst white independant females in britain in the nineties, it only made a slight concession for single people, but it was small and overshadowed by the biggest criticism received by the council tax, the outrageously high and well above inflation increases each year that we have seen pretty much since it was introduced. Despite the massive increases in local taxation, there has been little done to improve the countries failing public services. The SNP want to replace it with a local income tax whereby workers incomes are taxed a further 3p to the pound instead, and this is a better system as it will be scaled linearly according to your earnings, instead of weighted against those with low incomes. The people of britain are getting fed up with rich people and their tax breaks.
Staurm Reviewed by Staurm on . SNP claim first victory in plans to scrap council tax in Scotland Snp Wins First Vote To Scrap Council Tax (from The Herald ) Rating: 5