Damien commented...

A revealing article by the Tax Alliance about the Labour Party’s 2017 manifesto commitment to introduce a Garden Tax and its colossal impact on residents living in Sefton and Southport.
Under Labour, the average Band D property in Southport would be forced to pay £1,697, straight away.

The article.


It’s that time of year again: the bills are going up. April has arrived and brought with it a flood of eye-watering rises, not least the calls to cough up yet more council tax. Across England, the typical household is facing a nasty 4.7 per cent rise. Council leaders are going cap in hand to ratepayers, pleading poverty and demanding dosh, all while paying their town hall top brass huge remuneration packages and continuing to waste money left, right and centre.
That’s not to say all councils are badly run or don’t have to deal with tighter budgets. Some good local councillors get it and understand public anger, but the calls for even higher taxation don’t seem to be going away. More and more, politicians are promising things they simply can’t afford, but have to scrabble around to find money for. And council tax has become one of the main ways to access the cash.
But household budgets are already stretched and the cost of living is too high. Voters’ patience is wearing thin and politicians may soon have to find other, sneakier ways of getting more of our money. Like the shameless and unpopular clean air zone charges, which are coming to a city near you soon.
How else might government try and raise the money? We’ve taken a look at some recent examples to try and work out what the next big tax bill might be.
As a general rule, bureaucrats like property or land taxes because they’re hard to avoid. They need to be easy to implement and passable as ‘progressive’. Finally, they have to have a catchy name.
One such tax, which hit the headlines in the last election, is the so called ‘garden tax’. In a nutshell, this involves rolling council tax (and business rates) into a single charge on land itself. In other words, slapping a tax on the plot - including farmlands, driveways and your back garden. Despite a public backlash, the idea received wide ranging support, including from John McDonnell and the Adam Smith Institute.
So how would this work in practice? Let’s take one council by way of example. Sefton Council in Merseyside, covering Southport and Bootle, has made some impressive innovations in bureaucracy and administering council tax, identified in our paper on automating the state. At the same time, Sefton have been quick to decry government cutbacks and put up council tax by almost 3 per cent. So a pretty middle-of-the-road case study.
Now assume they want to raise revenue with a garden tax. Based on Land Registry figures and the applicable post codes (PR8 and PR9), the average houseprice in Southport in 2018 was £197,978. According to estimates from the Labour Land Campaign, one of the main proponents of the garden tax, land value comprises 55 per cent of a property’s total value. In Southport, that would be a taxable £108,888. According to the campaign, the "standard" land value levy could rise as high as 3 per cent for residential homes. While prices might eventually adjust, that gives us an immediate garden tax on a typical property in Southport of £3,267.
Here comes the crunch: the current Band D council tax is £1,570. Assuming the average property price, that would mean an extra £1,697 to pay, straight away. A rise of that size would make even the heftiest council tax bills blush. In simple terms, the typical household in Southport could face an eye-watering local rate rise of 108%. Council taxes would more than double.
This would be the story across the country too, with London, its suburbs and flourishing towns hit hardest by land taxes levied by eager councils. Homeowners would feel the squeeze. A tool as blunt as the garden tax could force many to simply sell up. But councils would surely be delighted to have finally found the extra funding they crave.
Council tax is deeply unpopular, but there aren’t any obvious replacements. The key is keeping it low and cutting down on waste. Taxes are never painless. So next time you hear a politician calling for a clever council tax replacement, or a new levy to cover the ‘funding gap’, remember: it could end up costing you your patio.

Who or what is the Tax Alliance?

The 2017 Labour Manifesto promised a review of council tax and business rates. Nothing more.
Quote
“We will initiate a review into reforming council tax and business rates and consider new options such as a land value tax, to ensure local government has sustainable funding for the long term.”

The Tory press (Telegraph, Mail, Express et al) jumped on the idea of a land-based tax as a money grabbing exercise ('garden-tax') by nasty left-wingers.

Land value taxes are paid by landowners on the unimproved rental value of their land. They are recommended by many economists ranging from Adam Smith to the Institute for Fiscal Studies mainly because they are considered to be economically efficient. In 2011 the Institute for Fiscal Studies backed the abolition of business rates replacing them with a land value tax.

Land ownership is highly concentrated in Britain, with a few hundred people owning half of all private rural land. One man, the Duke of Westminster, owns over 130,000 acres, including 300 acres in central London.
As a result, a move to LVT could see a dramatic shift in property taxation towards wealthy property barons, with most people getting a cut.

The Labour Party are also interested in a land-based tax as a means of encouraging developers to bring vacant or undeveloped land into use to address Britain’s housing crisis.

This site should be ashamed to post this blatant electioneering nonsense.

Did the Conservative manifesto include a commitment to making a cock up of everything that they contemplated? It is the only thing they have delivered on.

And their tribe of bonkers Brexiteers, including Damien "No" Moore, have persistently voted against Brexit.

Pots and kettles from the fake news fakir.

John Major should have stood fast on the principal of the community charge (poll tax) back in 1992/93. With some modification it would have stood the test of time and enabled a more equitable method of local government funding rather just heaping the load onto the householder.

Unfortunately in this instance mob rule won the day.

Originally Posted by roving-eye

Damien commented...

A revealing article by the Tax Alliance about the Labour Party’s 2017 manifesto commitment to introduce a Garden Tax and its colossal impact on residents living in Sefton and Southport.
Under Labour, the average Band D property in Southport would be forced to pay £1,697, straight away.

The article.


It’s that time of year again: the bills are going up. April has arrived and brought with it a flood of eye-watering rises, not least the calls to cough up yet more council tax. Across England, the typical household is facing a nasty 4.7 per cent rise. Council leaders are going cap in hand to ratepayers, pleading poverty and demanding dosh, all while paying their town hall top brass huge remuneration packages and continuing to waste money left, right and centre.
That’s not to say all councils are badly run or don’t have to deal with tighter budgets. Some good local councillors get it and understand public anger, but the calls for even higher taxation don’t seem to be going away. More and more, politicians are promising things they simply can’t afford, but have to scrabble around to find money for. And council tax has become one of the main ways to access the cash.
But household budgets are already stretched and the cost of living is too high. Voters’ patience is wearing thin and politicians may soon have to find other, sneakier ways of getting more of our money. Like the shameless and unpopular clean air zone charges, which are coming to a city near you soon.
How else might government try and raise the money? We’ve taken a look at some recent examples to try and work out what the next big tax bill might be.
As a general rule, bureaucrats like property or land taxes because they’re hard to avoid. They need to be easy to implement and passable as ‘progressive’. Finally, they have to have a catchy name.
One such tax, which hit the headlines in the last election, is the so called ‘garden tax’. In a nutshell, this involves rolling council tax (and business rates) into a single charge on land itself. In other words, slapping a tax on the plot - including farmlands, driveways and your back garden. Despite a public backlash, the idea received wide ranging support, including from John McDonnell and the Adam Smith Institute.
So how would this work in practice? Let’s take one council by way of example. Sefton Council in Merseyside, covering Southport and Bootle, has made some impressive innovations in bureaucracy and administering council tax, identified in our paper on automating the state. At the same time, Sefton have been quick to decry government cutbacks and put up council tax by almost 3 per cent. So a pretty middle-of-the-road case study.
Now assume they want to raise revenue with a garden tax. Based on Land Registry figures and the applicable post codes (PR8 and PR9), the average houseprice in Southport in 2018 was £197,978. According to estimates from the Labour Land Campaign, one of the main proponents of the garden tax, land value comprises 55 per cent of a property’s total value. In Southport, that would be a taxable £108,888. According to the campaign, the "standard" land value levy could rise as high as 3 per cent for residential homes. While prices might eventually adjust, that gives us an immediate garden tax on a typical property in Southport of £3,267.
Here comes the crunch: the current Band D council tax is £1,570. Assuming the average property price, that would mean an extra £1,697 to pay, straight away. A rise of that size would make even the heftiest council tax bills blush. In simple terms, the typical household in Southport could face an eye-watering local rate rise of 108%. Council taxes would more than double.
This would be the story across the country too, with London, its suburbs and flourishing towns hit hardest by land taxes levied by eager councils. Homeowners would feel the squeeze. A tool as blunt as the garden tax could force many to simply sell up. But councils would surely be delighted to have finally found the extra funding they crave.
Council tax is deeply unpopular, but there aren’t any obvious replacements. The key is keeping it low and cutting down on waste. Taxes are never painless. So next time you hear a politician calling for a clever council tax replacement, or a new levy to cover the ‘funding gap’, remember: it could end up costing you your patio.

Would that be the same TPA set up by a group of CONSERVATIVES in 2004. The same TPA who have been referred to as a CONSERVATIVE FRONT. The same TPA funded by a large number of CONSERVATIVE DONORS.

I just want to make sure no bias exists here!

Council tax has gone up massively this year, and in previous years, thanks to Moore and his ilk voting to cut council grants yet again.

"remember: it could end up costing you your patio." It will now come with 20% VAT tax increase thanks to the Conservatives.

Hmm