NOT all taxes are the same. The debate on council tax reform opens up a wider conversation on taxes.
There are some great articles on council tax in The National’s Axing The Tax series, and I support a much fairer tax on either property or land value. The key point is that taxing wealth is much better than taxing work or consumption. I want to add some value to the general discussion on council tax by zooming out a bit and discussing taxation at the local, subnational and national levels. Not all taxes are straightforward.
I like the council tax for one specific reason: it is transparent. Unlike most taxes, everyone can see the clear “pay fors” with council tax. The money collected by the local authority is spent on providing services to the local community. None of it goes to fund central government services. So, when your council tax is reduced, the service provision falls. It goes up, and you get your weekly bin removal again. Simple.
READ MORE: How do other countries do council tax?
The tax is collected by a currency-using (i.e., they don't create currency like the central government) local authority and then spent on service provision. While the local council may borrow some funds, most of what it spends comes from taxes paid by those who can or do use the services. Simple.
If only all taxation in the UK were so straightforward.
There is no economic law or rule requiring local authorities to collect tax. There’s no inherent need for council tax or any tax collected at the local level. Hypothetically, we could have excellent services without paying local taxes if the currency creator (the UK Government) funded them.
Because the UK central government does not allocate enough new spending (money creation) to local authorities to allow them to function independently, they must raise revenue locally. In short, the money doesn’t come from the currency provider (the UK Government), so local authorities must collect taxes from residents.
This conventional wisdom has led to a huge mess: potentially bankrupt local authorities who blame the wrong government for their troubles!
READ MORE: A timeline of the SNP's pledge to reform council tax
Last year, research from the Local Government Information Unit suggested that 25% of Scottish local authorities were “effectively bankrupt”. The body lays the blame at the feet of another currency-using institution (the Scottish Government), not the currency-issuing UK Government.
It reads: “The proposed council tax freeze has contributed to an increasingly poor relationship between Scottish Government and local government”, adding that “Scottish Government must work productively with councils to restore trust, remove ring fencing, identify revenue streams and reform core funding”. It doesn’t mention the UK Government.
If you don’t issue currency, you can go bankrupt. And that is happening to local authorities across England: six since 2021 have declared themselves bankrupt. They can’t raise enough money to provide services to residents – a shocking system failure.
Back to Scotland. Suppose a Scottish local authority wants more money from the Scottish Government. That money can only come from the Scottish Government raising taxes, cutting other services or re-allocating existing revenue. The Scottish Government cannot create new currency to inject into the economy. Only the UK Government can do that.
All currency users compete for limited resources, while the central government refrains from fully using its power of money creation.
For local councils or subnational authorities, taxes are necessary to pay for services. When you issue currency, tax doesn’t pay for anything; it simply accounts for part of government spending.
This is anything but simple, and the fact that some taxes fund service provision while others do not adds complexity to an already convoluted topic.
But we have only covered one element of tax: using it to fund services – which, it bears repeating, only occurs at the local level due to the central government’s decision not to fund these services.
Tax plays six other essential roles in our economy and society:
• Creates and sustains demand for the domestic currency.
• Creates room in the economy for government spending capacity.
• Changes the distribution of income and wealth.
• Encourages or discourages spending on specific things or changes behaviours.
• Acts as a social cement, fostering engagement in the economy.
• Helps control aggregate demand and inflation.
Thankfully, for all concerned, I will not attempt to explain these!
When considering tax reform, it’s essential to look beyond substituting council tax for another form of wealth tax. True reform requires redefining fiscal responsibilities across government levels, with the central government taking a more supportive role in local services. Without adequate support from the UK Government, local authorities face the near-impossible task of balancing service provision with financial stability.
Addressing these issues demands a comprehensive rethink of the roles and fiscal capacities at all levels of government, ensuring that the currency-issuing central government fully uses its resources to support the whole system.
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