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Stalinist Council Tax Snoopers


"Why should people who improve their homes with conservatories, patios and nice gardens be penalised?"

This was an editorial comment in the Daily Express earlier this week, which ran several articles on the subject, describing how a photographs were being used to compile a database for Council Tax valuations. The Daily Mail takes a similar view.

Why indeed? But this snooping remains essential to get the Council Tax to work as intended.

The only way to get rid of the snooping is reform of the tax, replacing it with a property tax must be confined to the rental value of land alone, and ignoring whatever buildings or other improvements on that land.

This is perfectly feasible and would avoid punishing people who make improvements to their homes and gardens. It would be cheaper to run and there would be no more need for snooping. So why don't these newspapers run with the idea, which would benefit most of the who read them?

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