Look to France for a good example of a fairer tax system

We had to thank the erstwhile “rainbow parliament” for so much of value from the Scottish Socialist Party in particular – more is the pity that did not endure. Their well-researched plans to replace the regressive council tax with a services tax never, unfortunately, came to fruition. Indeed, if my memory serves me correctly, I seem to recall an SNP electoral pledge to scrap the council tax, as well as create a publicly owned energy company. Both came to nought.

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The business “arm” of the council tax is just as cock-eyed, and far too centralised in Edinburgh. I have on several occasions been at pains to point out that a fair system is that practised in France (and, other European countries as well, for all I know – certainly as far afield as Canada.) It is indexed to turnover, and works exactly like PAYE, in that it has inbuilt flexibility, and varies according to business actually done at any given time. Thus a small or struggling business will not be hammered by having to find a crippling amount of tax simply because it is deemed to occupy a prime site on the high street.

One such store on my local high street had to close its doors, thus leaving yet another ugly gap-site, and, of course, therefore paying no contribution at all, simply because of reduced “footfall” during and immediately post-Covid. The manager told me that he had to find £60,000 per year in business rates, notwithstanding the prevailing commercial conditions, simply to stay there. Such is the inflexibility of this invidious system. The whole lot needs scrapped and re-thought out, not merely “tweaked”.

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Rebecca gets right to the root of it, though. Land tenure in Scotland must be our national disgrace. Not only that, but every administration’s failure to address it in a root-and-branch fashion. Is this due to a fear of confronting the vested interests of the powerful land owners? These people have access to the most wily and clever lawyers, and all the money and unscrupulousness to do so.

But unless they are tackled, and serious reform brought about, any other change, either political or economic, will be merely peripheral.

I take entirely Rebecca’s point about the remoteness of government, and the resultant feelings of frustration and impotence that this engenders at a local level. People do not feel a sense of involvement and integration, they just give up. The community councils are paper tigers here, mere talking shops, with no political “clout” whatsoever, and grossly underfunded. This is quite the opposite of the vigorous conseils municipaux in France, which have direct and important input to the next tier, the “departemental,” which, in turn, feeds the “regional” and, eventually, central government in Paris. Thus, you have a well-integrated and democratic, fluid system, attentive and sensitive to grassroots concerns.

Maybe things will improve here. You have to keep hoping, but holding the breath for too long is an altogether bad idea. Injurious to the health, you know!

Brian York
Dumfries

GRAEME McCormick’s excellent letter of September 13 touches on the subject of class – who fits into what bracket and why can often be a tricky question, although there is no doubt that we live in a class-ridden society.

For example, immensely wealthy landowners, obscenely enriched utilities bosses and a political elite some of whose financial goings-on are morally questionable (if not approaching criminality) inhabit one end of the system.

Somewhere else in the system we have a subculture of people who refuse to work, have no intention of contributing to society but will take every benefit they possibly can. They exist in a subculture often involving criminality and for them, as for the fat cats, screwing the system is a way of life. They are not the genuinely unemployed who through no fault of their own are out of work or unable to work.

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Somewhere in between are the workers – the people whose taxes underpin the whole sorry mess.

They fund the monarchy, subsidise rich landowners with grants, pay the scandalous salaries and expenses of politicians and watch helplessly as their hard-earned money is squandered on illegal foreign wars, arms manufacture and corrupt misgovernment.

Our much-vaunted democracy consists of a vote every few years, but it seems that in any given election only half of those eligible actually exercise this right. How Starmer must laugh at having gained so much power only because so many people didn’t participate in the process. Many of those declining to vote will be decent, hard-working people disgusted by the whole political charade. Understandable, but unless this mindset changes, our masters will continue to hold workers in utter contempt.

Jim Butchart
via email