Council Local Income National Tax

The prospect of the SNP introducing a Local/National Income/Council Tax has provoked the expected reaction from Westminster.

And like an alligator being poked with a stick there is absolutely no surprise about the nature of the response.

Indeed, one would be forgiven for thinking that the proposal is being floated just for the incompetent, thoughtless, and politically inept response from a thoughtless, incompetent and inept Scottish Office.

According to Westminster, the proposal was legally incompetent.

That'll really get the punters in Drumchapel talking -- only about how the "English Government" are stopping the Scottish Government from introducing a 'fairer' tax to replace the Council Tax.

CLINT - as I have now called it - has enough holes in it that any competent opposition (and remember Labour, that is what you are!) could take it apart, or scaremonger enough that the issue of legality, or otherwise, would become an irrelevant side issue.

Some of the holes that Wendy are missing include:

• The basic unfairness of the proposals
• The loopholes for the wealthy
• The lack of local control and hence local accountability for setting the CLINT rate
• The disincentives for local authorities to encourage wealth creation in their areas
• The services that aren't being provided to fund the £400m subsidy to the scheme
  
• The need to employ additional tax inspectors to determine where you live - Western Isles or Aberdeen; Scotland or England
• The administrative cost to be paid out of the tax yield
• The interaction between various pieces of of tax legislation e.g. if I own a second house in England an elect to have it treated as my Principal Private Residence for Capital Gains Tax purposes, then how does that affect my CLINT liability?

As it happens, I don't think any of these are insurmountable, but equally none of these are quickly and easily resolved either. Unless the SNP return to their original proposal to have the tax set locally; that is to say to directly replace the Council Tax with LIT.

Which - of course - was the proposal until the last election was won.

In the meantime watch the ritualised battle go through the same predictable dance whilst nothing moves forward.

Clint "Do you feel lucky, Wendy?" Salmond