YOU HAVE YOUR SAY
EVERY week, Money Mail receives hundreds of your letters and emails about our stories. Here are some of the best from our story about how quirks in our council tax system have left homeowners facing a bills lottery . . .
HOW THE SUPER RICH IN THE CITY PAY LESS COUNCIL TAX THAN A FAMILY IN THE COUNTRY
Money Mail, November 22 I RECENTLY sold my flat in Westminster and bought a much smaller one in Barnet, but now I pay a third more in council tax for a worse service. The whole system needs reforming. B. B., Barnet, London. COUNCIL tax should be meanstested and based on the person’s ability to pay, rather than a blanket tax on property. That way, it would be much fairer. C. S., Northampton. IN MOST countries, you pay a percentage of the property value — 0.5 pc to 1 pc. This keeps it fair and ensures that a billionaire with a £100 million mansion pays significantly more than someone in a family home. L. E., London. WE PAY more than £2,400 a year in Newcastle. It’s ridiculous that we have to pay so much to live in a poor area when those in wealthier places pay half as much. L. G., Essex. ANY method of raising taxes will have anomalies. If you move in to a property and are shocked by the council tax bill, then you haven’t done your homework. J. R., Keighley, Bradford. THE only fair way to do this is for us to pay for each person in the household, so those who use more services pay more. J. S., Gloucester. MY HOUSE is valued at £240,000 and was worth £160,000 in 1991. Now I pay £2,300 in council tax. I am also on a pension with an income of less than half the national wage. What a wonderfully fair system we have. B. G., Wretton, Norfolk. WE SHOULD bring back poll tax, a flat-rate tax on every adult set by the local authority. I think that was a much fairer system. U. T., Leeds. ÷ WRITE to Tony Hazell at Ask Tony, Money Mail, Scottish Daily Mail, 20 Waterloo Street, Glasgow G2 6DB or email asktony@dailymail.
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