Scotland’s council tax doomed

All three candidates for the Scottish Labour leadership are in favour of
scrapping Scotland’s council tax, bringing consensus among three of the four
main Scottish parties to introduce a different form of local government
taxation.

As the Scottish Government considers responses to its consultation paper on a
local income tax, the issue of domestic taxation has now become a key issue in
the race to succeed Wendy Alexander as Labour’s leader in Scotland, The
Scotsman reports.

All three leadership candidates are now backing a property tax – but not the
council tax – and a 1% flat-tax recommended in a 2005 review into local
government finance may be back on the table again.

Iain Gray, the former enterprise minister, who is also in favour of a new
property tax, said ‘something more immediate’ needed to be done in the short
term such as water charge abolition for pensioners and possible further cuts for
council tax bills.

Further reading:

Scottish LIT doomed to fail

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