Editing Poll tax (section)

===20th century===
{{Main|Poll tax (Great Britain)}}
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The Community Charge, popularly dubbed the "poll tax", was a tax to fund [[local government in the United Kingdom|local government]], instituted in 1989 by the government of [[Margaret Thatcher]]. It replaced the [[rates (tax)|rates]] that were based on the notional rental value of a house. The abolition of rates was in the [[Conservative Party (UK)|Conservative Party]] manifesto for the [[1979 United Kingdom general election|1979 general election]]; the replacement was proposed in the Green Paper of 1986, ''Paying for Local Government'' based on ideas developed by Dr. [[Madsen Pirie]] and [[Douglas Mason]] of the [[Adam Smith Institute]].<ref>{{cite news |last1=Pearce |first1=Ed |title=The prophet of private profit |url=https://www.theguardian.com/politics/1993/apr/19/thinktanks.uk |work=The Guardian |date=19 April 1993}}</ref> It was a [[fixed tax]] per adult resident, but there was a reduction for those with lower household income. Each person was to pay for the services provided in their community. This proposal was contained in the [[Conservative Party (UK)|Conservative Party]] [[manifesto]] for the [[1987 United Kingdom general election|1987 general election]]. The new tax replaced the rates in Scotland from the start of the 1988/89 financial year and in England and Wales from the start of the 1990/91 financial year.<ref name="TelegraphTimeline">{{cite news |last1=Collins |first1=Nick |title=Local government funding timeline: From rates to poll tax to council tax |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/8370222/Local-government-funding-timeline-From-rates-to-poll-tax-to-council-tax.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220112/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/8370222/Local-government-funding-timeline-From-rates-to-poll-tax-to-council-tax.html |archive-date=12 January 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live |work=The Daily Telegraph|date=9 March 2011}}{{cbignore}}</ref>

The system was very unpopular since many thought it shifted the tax burden from the rich to the poor, as it was based on the number of occupants living in a house, rather than on the estimated market value of the house. Many tax rates set by local councils proved to be much higher than earlier predictions since the councils realized that not they, but the central government would be blamed for the tax, which led to resentment, even among some who had supported the introduction of it.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Smith |first1=Peter |title=Lessons From the British Poll Tax Disaster |journal=National Tax Journal |date=December 1991 |volume=44 |issue=4 |pages=421–436 |doi=10.1086/NTJ41788932 |s2cid=42053969 |url=https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/d151/79e8204f875cfffcef9987f12326e85f2446.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191014184039/https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/d151/79e8204f875cfffcef9987f12326e85f2446.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-date=2019-10-14 |accessdate=14 October 2019 }}</ref> The tax in different boroughs differed because local taxes paid by businesses varied and grants by central government to local authorities sometimes varied capriciously.

Mass protests were called by the [[All Britain Anti-Poll Tax Federation]] with which the vast majority of local [[Anti-Poll Tax Unions]] (APTUs) were affiliated. In Scotland, the APTUs called for mass nonpayment, which rapidly gathered widespread support and spread as far as [[England and Wales]] even though non-payment meant that people could be prosecuted. In some areas, 30% of former ratepayers defaulted. While [[owner-occupier]]s were easy to tax, nonpayers who regularly changed accommodation were almost impossible to trace. The cost of collecting the tax rose steeply, and its returns fell. Unrest grew and resulted in a number of [[poll tax riots]]. The most serious was in a protest at [[Trafalgar Square]], London, on 31 March 1990, of more than 200,000 protesters. [[Terry Fields]], Labour MP for [[Liverpool Broadgreen (UK Parliament constituency)|Liverpool Broadgreen]], was jailed for 60 days for his refusal to pay the poll tax.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Chaplain |first1=Chloe |title=The biggest protests in recent history... and the impact they had |url=https://inews.co.uk/news/politics/brexit/peoples-vote-march-poll-tax-political-protest-impact-list-505974 |work=inews.co.uk |date=22 October 2018 |language=en |access-date=14 October 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191014184036/https://inews.co.uk/news/politics/brexit/peoples-vote-march-poll-tax-political-protest-impact-list-505974 |archive-date=14 October 2019 |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last1=Wheal|first1=Chris |title=Poll tax is history |url=https://www.theguardian.com/society/1999/apr/14/guardiansocietysupplement4 |work=The Guardian |date=14 April 1999}}</ref>

This unrest was a factor in the fall of Thatcher. Her successor, [[John Major]], replaced the Community Charge with the [[Council Tax]], similar to the rating system that preceded the Community Charge.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Higham |first1=Nick |title=Thatcher's Community Charge miscalculation |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-38382416 |work=BBC News |date=30 December 2016}}</ref> The main differences were that it was levied on capital value rather than notional rental value of a property, and that it had a 25% discount for single-occupancy dwellings.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Waterhouse |first1=Rosie |title=Uproar predicted over council tax |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/uproar-predicted-over-council-tax-1551107.html |work=The Independent |date=13 September 1992 |language=en |access-date=14 October 2019 |archive-date=14 October 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191014184035/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/uproar-predicted-over-council-tax-1551107.html |url-status=dead }}</ref>

In 2015, [[William Arthur Waldegrave, Baron Waldegrave of North Hill|Lord Waldegrave]] reflected in his memoirs that the Community Charge was all his own work and that it was a serious mistake. Although he felt the policy looked like it would work, it was implemented differently from his predictions "They went gung-ho and introduced it overnight in one go, which was never my plan and I thought they must know what they were doing – but they didn't."<ref>{{Cite news | url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-bristol-33594395 | title=Poll tax a mistake, says Waldegrave| work=BBC News| date=20 July 2015}}</ref>