15th April 2013, 06:04 PM
Dinosaur Wrote:...err, how do you think the Rating system worked then? Do check your facts! Ever heard of old phrases like 'rateable value'? And I must say my landlord takes the Council Tax out of the rent same as he used to take the Rates (shared tenancy so his problem), haven't notice being screwed at all
Indeed - the point was that we went from an old system where owners paid for the upkeep of local fabric, to a new system where owners pay for upkeep, through a brief interlude of "Greed is good" insanity where the owners were let off with piffling payments while the poor were asked to pony up or be excluded from even the basic right to vote for the jokers in Parliament!
As for being able to pay your Council Tax through your rent, I accept you probably can. But that's because the owner of the building (if it isn't the Council) has the legal obligation to pay the tax. When the old Rates ended and the Poll Tax started, I didn't get a rent reduction (it used to include the Rates as part of my landlord's calculation), but I did get a shiny new bill for the Poll Tax! So effectively my landlord at the time (no name, no pack drill) pocketed what he used to pay out in Rates as a new profit, while I ended up paying twice - once to him, and once to the Gov't. Screwed? I certainly was!
And for those who didn't pay the new tax (often because their B'stard landlords said they would do it for them seeing as they were still charging full whack in rent) there was a nasty surprise when the Summonses started to arrive. Seems the individual was responsible for the tax, and landlords were quick to dob in their tennants round where I lived...
Facts not only checked, but lived through. Been there, got the summons...