Quote Originally Posted by Maurice Swan View Post
Somewhere the model is flawed...and not making any political points here....but I really do think that Margaret Thatchers 'Poll Tax' was a much better way to collect local taxes.....paid according to the number of people in the household (and hence who uses more services), rather than the property valuation....even if a single person lived there.

Out of interest....here in the Dordogne, my equivalent tax is about €2500 a year (around £2140)....and at the moment I have a large house. However, because my income is solely from pensions (state and private) and fall below a certain level, because I am over 75 I am exempt from this tax. I DO however still have to pay €850 - which they say is the cost of refuse for a household of 2 adults/2 children - which to me is too high.

Next year this will largely disappear - as we are in a rural area there is no doorstep bin collection - we take our rubbish to local deposit points (usually once a week on the way to shopping). From next year these deposit points will be free for recycling waste, but with a charge of €1 per opening of the bin to throw away landfill items (the bin will be opened by a magnetic key issued to all households), with a minimum charge of (I think it is) €125.

Just a different way of doing things - and we don't have to separate every type of item to recycle (apart from glass).
The poll tax was a very unfair system, the one good thing that came out of it was its contribution to that woman’s demise.