Now Labour 'will tax your parking spaces'

The Daily Mail (UK) ^ | 12/9/06 | SIMON WAL

[kiriath_jearim]

Millions of householders face paying a tax of hundreds of pounds a year for parking their cars outside their homes, in council tax changes introduced by the Government, the Tories claim.

Shadow Local Government Minister Caroline Spelman claimed officials have been ordered to include the value of street parking in a national review of council tax bands.

She said it means that homes in suburban and urban streets could find their council valuations increased by several thousand pounds. If that moves them into a higher band, they could expect to pay an average of £250 extra a year.

The move follows claims that the Government is to increase council tax for people in "nice" neighbourhoods or with pleasant views, as well as charge them for the number of bedrooms and lavatories, conservatories and even rabbit hutches.

A Commons written reply by Local Government Minister Phil Woolas said that the new computerised system for calculating council tax in the future would take account of parking.

The Valuation Office Agency would decide the value to a property of "on-street parking, the number of garage spaces and off-street parking".

Ms Spelman said: "This proposal is complete nonsense. It gives no consideration to whether you use the parking space. It is totally unfair to people who don't own a car.

"And it is just as bad for those who do own a car but can't park outside their house because someone else has already taken the space. In some cases, having a parking space is a disadvantage if it attracts abandoned cars and causes a nuisance.

"And yet this Government wants to force such householders to pay more regardless. This absurd system of council tax changes is being run from a desktop computer in an office miles from anywhere, with no thought given to whether the reforms are practical.

"It is just another Labour stealth tax which will affect many people in urban and suburban Britain. Labour is determined to tax Middle England in every way it can think of. Now they are taxing people on things they don't even own."

But Mr Woolas accused Ms Spelman of scaremongering.

"There is nothing new in this," he said. "All that is happening is that we are moving from manual to computer records. It has always been the case that the value of a home included whether or not it had parking space.

"It has always been taken into account and it it is quite right that it should be so."

The Conservatives, however, insisted the change was significant.

"There is no doubt that the Government wants to implement big increases in council tax charges for millions of average households," said a Tory official.

"The small print in the Chancellor's Pre-Budget Statement showed they intend to put up council tax by billions in the next few years to fill the black hole in their spending plans.

"The Valuation Office Agency survey is being used as a cover to mask the Government's true intentions. They want to punish homeowners by prying into every aspect of their private lives and squeeze more money out of them."

Ministers have rejected claims that they have given valuation officials the power to force their way into homes to check property details. And they deny that the review allows the use of satellite technology to find out if people have built extensions.

[MadIvan]

Yes, property values do play a role - there are "bands" based on property value.

Parking spaces are at a premium in towns - so there is an added value with having that. However I've noticed that the biggest single thing one can have to raise the price of a property is a large garden.

Regards, Ivan

[hnj_00]

obviously socialism works real well

this is the direction of the US if the piaps and all other lib/dems get elected!!!

[az_gila]

Yes, property values do play a role - there are "bands" based on property value. Parking spaces are at a premium in towns - so there is an added value with having that. However I've noticed that the biggest single thing one can have to raise the price of a property is a large garden. Regards, Ivan

Perhaps if you are taxed for the parking spot outside your house you can then put a "Reserved" sign on it...:^)

[jim_trent]

Actually, you are (or will) not being taxes for the rain that falls on your property. You are being taxed to pay to treat it so that is clean.

This was started by the Clean Water Act in 1968. Back then, lots of communities dumped raw sewage (human waste) in streams and left it for those downstream to clean it up. It started with the biggest cities and worked down from there. In several places now, the treated wastewater is cleaner than the river they dump it into.

Now, they are expanding to the dog poop, lawn fertilizer, oil under the car engine, etc that the rainwater picks up when it falls on your property and runs downhill. This was started nearly 40 years ago and the people here are just starting to notice. Like eminent domain, if you wait until it has been done for 40 or 50 years before protesting, you are TOO LATE.

[MarkL]

"declare the pennies on your eyes"

TAXMAN!!!!

Mark

[goldstategop]

If it breathes, tax it. If its to be buried, tax it.

"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." -Manuel II Paleologus

[MarkL]

Have they come up with "imputed income" there as well? I've heard that a number of leftists here in the states think that it's a nifty idea... It for home owners... If you own a home, and lets say that you have a long term mortgage, and your mortgage payment is say, $750 a month. But similar homes in your area are renting for say, $1000 a month, then according to the government, you have an imputed income of $250 a month, which means that for tax purposes, $3000 of "income" will be added to the sum total of your income...

Imagine what that will do to retirees who have already paid off their homes: Add an additional $12,000 a year to the amount they're taxed on.

Mark

[MarkL]

I've heard the "Green" party referred to as the "Watermellon Party." Green on the outside, red on the inside. It seems that's where the hard left of the world have found a home. Interestingly enough, it was the eastern european communist countries that were some of the worst ecological disasters before the Iron Curtain fell

(Winston Churchill, we need you now!)

Mark

[MarkL]

If it gets worse, we'll work to make it better. But it will survive.

That's the line of thought that allowed you to beat the Blitz! More power to you!!!!

Mark

[ReignOfError]

Yes, property values do play a role - there are "bands" based on property value.

Parking spaces are at a premium in towns - so there is an added value with having that. However I've noticed that the biggest single thing one can have to raise the price of a property is a large garden.

So are these criteria we're talking about -- gardens, parking lots, etc. -- use to differentiate between one band and another, between one property and another in the same band, or both? And do the differences in tax track pretty closely to the differences in what you could expect to sell the home for?

[ReignOfError]

Interestingly enough, it was the eastern european communist countries that were some of the worst ecological disasters before the Iron Curtain fell

Not at all surprising. When the folks who are supposed to maximize profit and efficiency (business) and the folks who are supposed to protect the common good (government) are the same folks, they don't do either job well. The greatest happiness and prosperity come from both in balance -- not a static balance, but a constant, and constantly shifting, state of creative tension.

That's why I distrust utopianism, whatever the vision of utopia. Utopians believe that we can one day reach a state where all such conflicts will cease. I don't think that jibes with any sane reading from any page of history. Radical statism and radical laissez-faire are both states of imbalance, and human nature won't let them last long.

If you read Thomas Paine and Karl Marx side by side, it's astonishing how similar their visions of the future are. Both believe that we can throw off the shackles of the current order, a bunch of stuff will happen in between, and then we'll all live together in an enlightened state, with a government that need only provide minor administrative support and courts to settle disputes.

The difference is the stuff in between -- and because I don't believe it's possible to achieve Utopia, that difference is all the difference. In the 20th century, it was the difference between living in a free and democratic (to varying degrees) society and living in a bleak Communist hellhole.

[MadIvan]

No, thank God - there's been no discussion of taxing imputed income. But give it time, I'm some idiot politician will propose it.

Regards, Ivan

[MadIvan]

So are these criteria we're talking about -- gardens, parking lots, etc. -- use to differentiate between one band and another, between one property and another in the same band, or both? And do the differences in tax track pretty closely to the differences in what you could expect to sell the home for?

That's right - any added features raise the value of the property and can cause it to cross from one band to another. These difference do track what the expected value of the property is.

Regards, Ivan

[MaxMax]

Shadow Local Government Minister Caroline Spelman

I stopped reading at this sentence.

[Pontiac]

Imagine what that will do to retirees who have already paid off their homes: Add an additional $12,000 a year to the amount they're taxed on…. I've heard that a number of leftists here in the states think that it's a nifty idea

Sure it is a great idea from the point of view of a Communist. It in effect would remove any benefit of the ownership of property. The state would become your landlord.

With today’s tax tables most retirees with a modest home in a good neighborhood would go from not being required to file a return to owing taxes at the end of the year.

Great plan for our socialist buddies.