30 Years of Council Tax

Except it didn't.  The Poll Tax architects very carefully excluded the massive value that owners of high value property get from using living in an organised society.
 
Well they would wouldn't they.

Steve's point is that poll tax was a personal charge, not one based on property.

As it should be.

Hows about councils were funded on positive results? That would save the taxpayers a fortune.

OK, I get you. But it's even more bizarre than that, because property values vary enormously by area. I live in and end terrace in Coventry, band A, but pick my house up and transport it to inner London, the same house doesn't have the same value. I'd say minimum Band E.

I get you point on the upper limits, my mum lives in a nice 4 bed detached in a village outside the city. Nice house, but nothing special, but at band E she complains that she's only 3 bands lower than the Queen. (RIP). In Wales when they did the revaluation they extended the bandings to J, but all it did was succeed in increasing everyone's (pretty much) banding, hence Gordon Brown's decision to postpone the revaluation in England.

I think the inherent unfairness in the current system is the alignment of ctax to property value, on the basis that people who live in more expensive or bigger houses have more income. Of course that's not always true, hence the need to have council tax support to fund those on no or low incomes. We also have a shortage of particularly one bed properties in this country, we have a lot of single people living in larger properties.

One other thing is maintaining an accurate database. The system is totally reliant on the public providing prompt and accurate info when they move into or out of the property. That's because you are billing the residents rather than the owner. A land tax would shift that the other way round, so the info could be shared through the land registry. That would also reduce the amount of cts needed, as the majority of land owners should be able to pay the bill without assistance. Questions would remain over council properties and housing association (charities) and whether / how you would bill them.

Similarly with a local income tax you would have a direct link to HMRC, so collecting would be easier for those on PAYE, but what about those who are self employed? You'd have less enforcement costs, and you could pretty much get rid of CTS, but would hit those on lower incomes disproportionately.

That's because being at one place is more valuable than being at another. It's interesting to reflect on who provides this value. Who provides (creates) the value of being (say) in the center of London?

Everyone makes mistakes.

The left's conceit that hammering the productive helps anyone has done far, far more damage - and the un-fairness of that conceit is more camouflaged

I think one reason taxation is so contentious in the uk is odious the state of the public sector. If the public sector could be cleaned up, people might not feel they were being mugged by a gang of scoundrels