Local Lib Dems Call for government to "Axe the Tax"

7.02.00am GMT Thu 10th Feb 2005

Council tax is now the most unpopular tax in Britain today - because it's the most unfair tax and isn't based on a person's ability to pay. For Liberal Democrats, the only credible answer is to scrap council tax completely, and replace it with a tax related to ability to pay - a local income tax

Liberal Democrats believe local income tax is the best alternative to council tax for 5 reasons:

• Fairness - local income tax has fairness "built in", as it is related to ability to pay

• Efficiency - it's cheaper to administer, needing no special bureaucracy or benefit system

• Decentralisation - it allows national income tax to be cut, with tax power pushed down

• Greater accountability - by raising tax closer to people, it strengthens local democracy

Key parts of our package are:

• To scrap council tax, replacing it with Local Income Tax at 3.75% - cutting the tax burden overall for most pensioners and households, with no rise in the overall tax burden

• To use the national income tax system to administer local income tax, saving much of the cost of collecting Council Tax and operating Council Tax Benefit, estimated for the UK at over £650 million (a net saving after Inland Revenue extra costs of at least £300 million)

• To have a tax-free personal allowance for local income tax of at least £5,000 (for over 65s, at least a £7,000 allowance) when implementing

• To cap an individual's income that can be taxed by a local income tax at £100,000 per annum.

Tynedale Lib Dems Lead Local Fight

We believe that Council Tax is an unfair tax as it hits the low and middle income earners. Tynedale Liberal Democrats put a motion to Tynedale Council calling for the council to support a move to a fairer local income tax. Unfortunately the ruling Tories and Labour councillors thought no change a better option, so the motion was lost. Cllr Donna Bradbury commented "It is still Liberal Democrat policy to replace council Tax with a fairer local income tax. We will continue to push the case and thank people for their support"