According to New Labour's remarkable thought processes, a local income tax (at 3%) is "a tax on work". So what is national income tax (at 22% and 40%)? And what is council tax but a tax on work? Most of us have to pay our council tax from our wages and pensions. The paper value of your house does not pay your council tax.

Council tax is not a true property tax. It is an income tax - but an income tax which bears no relation to the amount of your income. Poor people can pay 20 times as much in council tax as rich people, in terms of percentage of their income.

It could happen only in Britain.
Archie White,
63 Hallydown Drive, Glasgow.


Doug Maughan's response (March 16) to the SNP's alternative solution to the existing inappropriate system of local tax prompts the quotation: "It is easier to criticise than to construct."

Council tax is a varying-band tax based on property valuation. It is thus apparent that the properties themselves, not the occupants, are being taxed by the local authority. Dwellings, however, being inanimate objects, do not take advantage of the services provided, which include education and social work, these alone making up around 60% of local authority expenditure. It is the lifestyle of the occupants which is relevant, certainly not the dwellings they reside in.

An income-based tax is the only fair and just one, and whether this is levied at local or national level is immaterial. The simplest and fairest method of all is that adopted by the Republic of Ireland, a non-existent local tax. In our case, the greater proportion of council expenditure is already being met by central government.

If Mr Maughan wishes to refute the inference of my quotation, let him put forward his own conception for improvement, failing which he should state that he considers the status quo too logical, fair and efficient a method to warrant a viable alternative.
Frederick Jenkins,
The Lodge, Burnton, Kippen.

Council tax is a regressive Tory tax that has been in place for 15 years. The Scottish Parliament has existed for eight. In that time, the only party to have attempted to introduce a progressive alternative to the council tax has been the Scottish Socialist Party. At the 2003 elections, the SSP made the running on this issue, stampeding the SNP and Labour into making commitments to look at alternatives. It has taken four years for Jack McConnell first to commission a report then bin it and for the SNP to come up with a regressive package that will mean high earners paying a smaller proportion of their income in local government tax than the rest.

Labour and the SNP have been proven to do nothing more than talk. The SSP has formulated a costed alternative. The main parties are proving once more that you could barely slip a sheet of paper between them on most issues while clear red water is exposed between them and the SSP, the party that aims to benefit the majority of the population.
David Stevenson,
47 Cairns Road, Cambuslang.

Having received notice of next year's council tax, and reading the arguments for and against some other system, I would be grateful if someone could answer a couple of questions for me. First, why is the council tax in Scotland roughly double that in England? And secondly, why is there no "can pay, won't pay" in Scotland when there have been some well-publicised cases south of the border?
Rev Dr Angus T Stewart,
Mansefield, Buchlyvie, Stirling.