What does the Business Rates System say about the UK?
The tax code of a country defines what sort of state they are and the morals that underpin society and measures what a country values. In the UK, our tax code is broken, as it does not fundamentally reflect the morals of most people in this country.
So does the way that business rates and council tax say about the UK?
In the UK if you rent a shop at or near One Hyde Park your business rates are likely to be around £100,000 to £200,000 per year. However, as council tax on a multi-millionaire property lived in a couple of weeks a year by a billionaire oligarch only attracts a council tax rate at the capped ceiling of band H. So at around 2% of the level of the business rates.
Now London is, at times crazy. To bring this down to a more local setting. In Basingstoke, a bunch of go-getting youngsters set about to open a shop and start a business. The business was called The Rucksack Society. After a review of the business (and a landlord taking the Micheal), they have had to close. This is another example of the many businesses that are going to close across the country because of a business rates system that was designed by Whitehall and is out-of-touch with other government policies and the 21st-century economy.
Business rates are being used as a stealth tax on poorer people to avoid putting up council tax for wealthy middle-class suburbanites. It helps to subsidise large out-of-town operations over the locally owned and convenient. Business rates are part of the Treasury's increasing centralisation that makes a mockery of devolution to councils and regions of England.
I have been slightly ranting a bit with this one. So what I will do is sum up my simple solution by changing the way that business rates and council tax are calculated and collected.
Let councils decide on what to charge for business rates as a percentage of either: The rental value for tenanted properties and a percentage of the current market value of owner-occupied properties. Let local people decide what is best through local democracy.
The Tax system in the UK says that we are a society that cares more about big international businesses than local businesses. A tax system that taxes are for those who serve the rich and not the rich themselves. Essentially we are saying taxes are for the peasants, and tax write-offs are for the rich.