CIOT publishes poll data on attitudes to council tax reform in Scotland

With a commitment to consider options for reforming the tax contained in the Scottish Government’s partnership agreement with the Scottish Green Party, the CIOT worked with the Diffley Partnership to ask Scots about their attitudes to council tax reform and a number of alternative taxes considered by the 2015 Commission on Local Tax Reform.

Respondents were asked if they agreed with the opening conclusion of the Commission that the present system of council tax must end and the extent to which they supported four options considered by the commission during its work:

• Replacing council tax with a local income tax;
• Keeping council tax but reforming it to better reflect property values within existing council tax bands;
• Replacing council tax with a property tax where a household pays a percentage of the value of their home in tax and;
• Replacing council tax with a land value tax, based on the value of the land on which a property is built.

The survey found that:

• 48 per cent ‘strongly’ or ‘tend to’ agree that the present system should end
• 8 per cent disagreed
• 27 per cent neither agreed or disagreed
• 17 per cent didn’t know

The following percentage of respondents indicated that they would ‘strongly support’ or ‘support’ the four alternative options outlined above:

• Local income tax – 26 per cent
• Reformed council tax – 44 per cent
• Property tax based on a percentage of home value – 22 per cent
• Land value tax – 23 per cent

CIOT also commissioned survey questions related to wider awareness and understanding of taxation in Scotland. You can read more about those here.

Notes:

The survey was designed by The Diffley Partnership and invitations were issued online using the ScotPulse panel. The survey took place between 12 and 17 January 2023.

The results are based on a survey of 1,145 respondents and are weighted to the Scottish population by age and gender. The topline summary of responses can be downloaded here, and the data set here.