--------------------ooooo-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

TIME TO VOTE TO AXE THE TAX!

QUICK LINKS

Lib. Dems. have criticised Council Tax ever since the Tories first suggested it. It is a grossly unfair tax that now costs more than £600m. to collect. It does not take into account a person’s ability to pay, and lacks any form of uniformity. Because of the unfairness the Tories built into the tax a person in a Band D home in Wandsworth pays only £596 per year, while a person in Band D home in Ponteland pays £1274.

Lib. Dems would axe the tax and introduce the far fairer system of Local Income Tax favoured by so many countries around the world.

In Wales New Labour have now begun the process of rebanding homes. To the horror of the Welsh, 67% of all homes have now gone up at least one band, while only 8% have gone down.

If this happened in Castle Morpeth, 67% of households would have to pay at least an extra £284 a year in Council Tax, forcing many more people to apply for Council Tax Benefit. Can you afford to pay an extra £284 Council Tax every year?

The Tories, having created Council Tax are reluctant to come forward with any proposal to change it, and appear to support the New Labour option of rebanding.  

28 January 2005

Letter - Rebanding

WHAT IS LOCAL INCOME TAX?

 Liberal Democrats want to get rid of the expensive locally collected Council Tax and replace it with Local Income Tax (L.I.T.), but what are the advantages? 

1. Collecting Council Tax, which is done at a local level at the moment now costs more than £600M.

2. L.I.T. would be collected centrally along with Income Tax. This would save approx. £300M.

3. Only those people who currently pay Income Tax would pay L.I.T. If you are a pensioner, student or low income earner and not paying tax at the moment you would still pay nothing!

4. Liberal Democrats estimate that L.I.T. would cost Income Tax payers approximately an extra 3.75p on each pound they pay.

5. Totally Independent Assessors have studied all the figures and are satisfied that using the much fairer L.I.T. would be a saving on the current Council Tax system for 7 out of every 10 households.

These are the 5 main reasons why L.I.T. is used in so any countries throughout the world from America in the North to Australia in the South.

28 January 2005

Manifesto links

Economy & Business         Pensions & Benefits         Local  Communities

Axe the tax

Your Choice

Priorities of Liberal Democrats

The Real Opposition

Dramatic Changes

Praise

Peter Charleton