Labour leadership hopeful Andy Burnham provoked a minor storm on Cif last week with his proposal to introduce a land value tax (LVT). This was unsurprising - introducing LVT would be the most radical change to the tax system in a generation. But some of the comments need closer examination. This is a complex issue, and the benefits of a Burnham-style LVT are not immediately obvious. So what are the potential problems and benefits, how can they be overcome, and why abolish council tax, stamp duty and inheritance tax?The case for abolishing council tax (CT) is easy. Council tax is an unfair tax that disproportionately hits the poor. A person living in a property worth £100,000 pays around 40% of the tax paid by someone owning a property worth £1m. This is palpably unjust. Taxation should be proportionate and based on the ability to pay. CT utterly fails these tests. We all know that the CT bands are a farce. Indeed, there has been no UK-wide revaluation since CT was introduced in 1991, because it is so unpopular, and politicians are well aware that average house values have more than trebled since then.
Labour leadership hopeful Andy Burnham provoked a minor storm on Cif last week with his proposal to introduce a land value tax (LVT). This was unsurprising - introducing LVT would be the most radical change to the tax system in a generation. But some of the comments need closer examination. This is a complex issue, and the benefits of a Burnham-style LVT are not immediately obvious. So what are the potential problems and benefits, how can they be overcome, and why abolish council tax, stamp duty and inheritance tax?
The case for abolishing council tax (CT) is easy. Council tax is an unfair tax that disproportionately hits the poor. A person living in a property worth £100,000 pays around 40% of the tax paid by someone owning a property worth £1m. This is palpably unjust. Taxation should be proportionate and based on the ability to pay. CT utterly fails these tests. We all know that the CT bands are a farce. Indeed, there has been no UK-wide revaluation since CT was introduced in 1991, because it is so unpopular, and politicians are well aware that average house values have more than trebled since then.
This article on Land Value Tax - which is now being advocated by one of the candidates for the Labour leadership, Andy Burnham - has without doubt brought out the finest crop of completely idiotic and self contradictory comments - from Stalinist Left to Austerian Right- I have ever seen from people trying to justify the unjustifiable.
As one of the wiser heads - manningtreeimp - ruefully observes....
Great how a discussion on an alternative system of taxation which historically has its roots on the right suddenly becomes a socialist ploy to destroy the country...unbelievable
