Local Taxation - What is It?

Historically practitioners tend to think of "local taxation" as the following:

• rating; and,
• council tax.

A study of the history of local taxation would probably cover rating since the Poor Relief Acts of the 16th Century. (In fact it went back a  bit further in time.) Rating covered business and residential property until the community charge was introduced and suffered a swift demise; being replaced by council tax under the Local Government Finance Act 1988.

A classification of "taxes" today pobably extends beyond council tax and rating so I tend to think of a "local tax" as being any taxation or revenue device or measure where local folk can properly and lawfully dip their hands in or have to use their hands to fork out (or not) their money from their pocket or handbag.

What on earth does he (I) mean? Just that for my purposes I find it useful to think of local taxation as including the following:

• council tax;
• rating* and its "measures", eg BIDs and rating supplements(1);
• community infrastructure levy (CIL);
• various development tariffs (many of these are likely to be absorbed into CIL);
• section 106 Agrements (and the like) (but these are likely to go was CIL develops more fully);
• local authority revenues covering fees, charges, etc, ie for parking, market stalls, trading licences and the like:
• aspects of national taxation which has a direct local feature, eg the Landfill Community Fund, the Aggregates Levy Sustainability Fund.

*Rating as it is now is largely a national tax but the Localism Bill may change the balance in favour of it becoming a local tax.