Scottish Political Parties' Policies.

• The Scottish New Labour Party wishes to retain the present Council Tax, with one additional as yet unspecified band at the top and one additional as yet unspecified band at the bottom. It also proposes to reduce water and sewerage charges for pensioner households initially by 50% within 2 years, and move towards complete removal of these charges for pensioners "when resoures allow".


• The Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party also wishes to retain Council Tax, with a 50% reduction for pensioners.


• The Scottish National Party favours an income-based tax at 3 pence in the pound, collected centrally by HM Revenue and Customs along with national income tax, through the PAYE system where possible. The same rate would be charged in all Council areas. The remainder of local authority funding would come from central government grants.


• The Scottish Liberal Democratic Party and the Scottish Senior Citizens Unity Party favour a Local Income Tax set locally by Councils, but collected centrally by HM Revenue and Customs along with national income tax, through the PAYE system where possible.


• The Scottish Socialist Party and Solidarity favour a progressive, centrally-set income tax, ring-fenced for Council expenditure.


• The Scottish Green Party favour a Land Value Tax.


• The policies of the Scottish National Party, the Scottish Liberal Democratic Party, the Scottish Socialist Party, Solidarity and the Scottish Senior Citizens Unity Party are compatible with SAACT's five principles for a fair tax. The policies of the other parties are not.


• As an organization, SAACT expresses no preference among the SNP, Lib-Dem, SSP , Solidarity and SSCUP proposals (or any other proposals compatible with our five principles). What we do urge is that the anti-Council Tax parties should be willing to cooperate, and even compromise on less essential matters, in order to get rid of the iniquitous Council Tax.