Letter: Tax opportunity

KR MURDOCH (Letters, 12 March) rightly calls into question the fairness of the council tax, but what tax on income is fair and at what level? Would 19.5 per cent be too little, 20.5 per cent too much and 20per cent just right?

It's very much the same when a level of tax on "bricks and mortar" is suggested (eg, the old rating system). Why should someone be penalised by extra payments for upgrading the building and its facilities, or simply for living in a big comfortable house?

So, is there a way of raising public revenue that is unavoidable by residents or non-doms, does not depress work activity, sales, entrepreneurial dynamism, does not punish property improvements and, if it exists, where is it?

The answer is not in front of our collective noses, just under our feet, and it is called land. This land, unlike private and commercial buildings or the economic activity taking place within them, is not man-made.

It came free of all production costs and, therefore, has no capital value. What land does have is a desirability factor, a rental value potential that is 100 per cent derived from societal demand. The 100 per cent return of that rental value as public revenue removes the need for all taxes on income. KR Murdoch can relax.

RON GREER

Armoury House

Blair Atholl, Perthshire