[tialaramex]

Winston was writing in England (which is what the article is about) in 1909.

Property taxes in the UK essentially don't distinguish between "nice house" and "an actual palace". A tiny bedsit pays grade A taxes, my nice flat is grade B, My mother's old house (a four bedroom cottage in a pleasant village where lots of rich people live) would be category H. There aren't any categories above H. They're charged to the occupants, so if you own a town of a hundred dwellings and let them out, the residents pay those taxes, not you. The exact mechanism has changed substantially since Winston's time (and indeed was the cause of major riots decades ago) but this general thrust has been true for generations.

It's true that rental income due to a landlord is taxable income, after expenses, but I don't see how that's relevant?

Capital Gains Taxes only kick in if you sell. If you're content to profit off ownership indefinitely you are never charged CGT.

[lozenge]

To put a number on it, band H properties are at least 8 times the value of a band A property, but pay only 3 times as much tax.

(From A POOR TAX COUNCIL TAX IN LONDON: TIME FOR REFORM, although the same info is on government websites).

[NeedMoreTea]

Council tax and poll tax before it were very clearly examples of trickle up taxes. Massively regressive compared to the rates.

Yet no one is complaining, demonstrating or rioting.

[randomsearch]

They did protest and riot, but the government ignored them.

[NeedMoreTea]

They used to. In 1909 we had rates not council tax. Rates were originally brought in during 1601 to fund poor law provision!

They had a huge advantage over the council tax - and Thatcher's brief foray into a poll tax. Houses don't move, people do. The rates were on the property and were charged on rateable value which was a value distinct from market value, but not banded. People and inhabitants did not matter (at least in the 20th century - not sure about earlier).

Every government from Attlee's in 1945 onward promised to replace or reform the rates. Every one except Thatcher concluded it would be not worth doing, and far more expensive to run. All that was needed was a tax break for the little old widow stuck in the old family home after the family had left, as an exception.

Council tax is in effect a massive tax break for the wealthy, compared to domestic rates, as the highest band is an absurdly low value that catches every property worth more than £320,000 in band H. Same tax for £320k and £25m.