Tax reform needed

IF WE all paid council tax as 
Erikka Askeland asserts (Perspective, 20 July), it wouldn’t be “now almost vestigial”. It is because so few pay council tax that it forms only 12 per cent of all taxes raised by the government.

Moreover, as a property tax it is grossly inequitable as the connection with income is tenuous. Likewise, with the antediluvian non-domestic rates paid by businesses based on ancient rentable and rateable values. As it is calculated according to property values, no account is taken of turnover, gross or net profits.

Isn’t it time for a cross-party review of council tax and business rates especially the latter?

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Now with e-trading, a business such as secondhand car sales operating from home could have turnover and profits that dwarf high street shops. This economic change needs political action to bring assessors’ departments into the electronic age.

Ellis Thorpe

Old Chapel Walk

Inverurie, Aberdeenshire

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