Why the current rules encourage absentee voting
Imagine you own a big house somewhere in a high council tax area and a holiday cottage in Cornwall. You have to tell one set of election officials which is your "primary" residence and another set of officials which is the property on which you wish to claim a discount on your council tax.
In general elections, you will be voting from your "primary" residence, which you may well have decided is the one with the cheaper council tax, so as to claim a percentage discount on the larger tax bill.
The officials simply don't have the resources to prove your claim one way or the other and so have to take your word for it. I wonder if any readers would see this as an argument for trying to improve democracy through levying higher, punitive council tax rates on second homes?
I'm Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú Radio Devon’s Graham Smith, blogging on news, views and some fresh insights into West Country life, particularly the way government works locally and nationally.
Comment number 1.
At 20th Apr 2011, Dave the rave wrote:So smart people will attempt to minimise the amount of tax they have to pay. Not really big news that Graham.
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