Sunday Times (letters): Tax reform

Sir,

David Smith’s Economic Oultook column last week referred to Liberal Democrat plans for tax reform. I note that he added back the proposed local income tax rate (3.5p) to the proposed national rate (16p) in his assessment. Perhaps he sees the hypocrisy and unnecessary cost involved in “local” tax, whether of property or income.

Local is not local if controlled from the centre. Scrap council tax by all means and set the revenue loss of £23 billion (a tiny percentage of all local spending anyway) against savings from better government – overspending on large projects was recently detailed by the Taxpayers Alliance, and another report revealed that £80 billion had been wasted by poor decision-making.

It needs people who can think from professional and industrial experience, and who are not taxation addicted, to realise that there are techniques for moving tax revenue – techniques not understood by politicians and senior civil servants who do not have subject knowledge and managerial experience.

Yours,

Peter Webb, chairman of Surrey Tax Action Group, a member of the Taxpayers Alliance, Godalming, Surrey