Consultation on the future of Council Tax in Scotland

The ATT has responded to the Scottish Government's consultation paper on the future of Council Tax in Scotland.

Council Tax is currently charged based on property values in April 1991. The consultation explores the possibility of revaluing properties so that Council Tax bands can instead be based on current market values, as well as the option of increasing the number of Council Tax bands in Scotland so that the system can be more progressive.

The consultation also considers how a transitional relief scheme may operate where revaluation causes a property to move between bands, along with the merits of a Council Tax deferral scheme where there is an impact on the ability to pay.

In our response, whilst supportive of the need for a Council Tax revaluation, we also encourage the Scottish Government to consider alternative methods of raising funds for local government. We feel it is important that the system is simple to understand and linked to ability to pay and it is possible that potential alternatives could better achieve this and reduce the need for complicated relief structures.

Should Council Tax remain, we would suggest that bands be progressive and that the 14 band approach might better achieve this. Bands I and J would need to align with the announcement in the recent Scottish budget and other bands should be calculated back from the benchmark set for the new bands. This may reduce the extent of the gaps between some of the other bands as per the draft proposal.