User talk:Winklethorpe/Business rates

Now moved to Business rates.

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Drafting for Taxation in the UK

Introduction (Needs better title)
Taxation is controlled by the UK government. Some limited tax-varying powers have been devolved to the Scottish Parliament, National Assembly for Wales, and Northern Ireland Assembly. The government department responsible for public finance (including taxation) and economics is HM Treasury, headed by the Chancellor of the Exchequer. The department primarily responsible for collection of taxes is HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC), which is headed by the Paymaster-General, a HM Treasury minister. A small number of taxes are collected by other departments or executive agencies. Some taxation used to finance local government is collected by local authorities, although they generally have limited powers to set those taxes.

Local taxes
Local government is funded by a combination of grants from central government and two forms of property tax collected by local authorities: Council tax and Business rates. Apart from limited powers to grant reliefs, business rates are set by central government decisions, and while the income collected is dedicated to local government funding, it does not go directly to the local authority, but is pooled centrally and redistributed. Council tax is set by the local authority (within centrally set limits), while the distribution of burden amongst their taxpayers is set centrally.

Council tax
Council Tax is a simplified form of a property tax on domestic property in England, Scotland and Wales, used to fund local government. It was introduced in 1993 to replace the Community Charge, a type of poll tax. The Community charge had itself replaced a long standing property-based system of rates, and council tax resembles a modernised version of rates. Domestic properties are assessed into one of a number of bands based upon their capital value as at a fixed date. The relationship between the bands for billing purposes is set, so local authorities can only decide on the overall amount to be collected. A system of reliefs and benefits can affect the overall bill.