Any private citizen in the UK should be alarmed.
But in particular, folks operating a business from their home may be in for more of a shock should the value of their inventory or business equipment be used to justify higher property taxes.
From the News Telegraph
England like the US is slowly trashing the rights of citizens to be secure in their own “castle” just to feed the insatiable tax man…
Council tax inspectors will be able to enter people’s homes and take photographs even of their bedrooms, it emerged yesterday.
Whitehall documents reveal that they will be allowed to “obtain factual information from internal inspections” as part of the enormous exercise to revalue 22 million properties in England.
When council tax was set up in 1993, most valuations were done from behind a desk and property inspections were largely external.
Caroline Spelman, the Tories’ local government spokesman, said: “Labour’s council tax revaluation will mean an army of nosey clipboard inspectors invading people’s homes, including their bedrooms.
“The privacy of law-abiding citizens will be ignored because of Labour’s compulsion to levy stealth taxes on hard-working families and pensioners.”
She said a “Big Brother” database would include new inspection codes that would allow the Valuation Office Agency, an arm of the Inland Revenue, to check which properties had been inspected and the degree to which an internal or external inspection had been recorded.
The disclosure follows the revelation that John Prescott, the Deputy Prime Minister, is planning to charge higher tax on homes with patios, multiple bedrooms, conservatories and scenic views.
The Valuation Office Agency sought the advice of the office of the Surveillance Commissioner on entering homes. The commissioner replied that inspectors taking photographs of properties would not contravene the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act or the Human Rights Act, even though those laws were intended to protect citizens’ privacy.
But Miss Spelman said: “Most people will find it offensive that intrusive bureaucrats sent by John Prescott will be taking photographs inside their home to find out the number of their bedrooms and the size of their patio, garage or greenhouse.
“Not only will homes face soaring council tax bills but everyone will pay the price for this Orwellian bureaucracy.
“I am concerned that invasive inspections on such a large scale will place the elderly at risk from conmen pretending to be from the Government. The case for cancelling the unpopular and unwanted tax revaluation has never been stronger.”
Cris Zimermann on November 16th, 2005 at 7:47 am
The government is really pushing. I reckon it won’t be long before the brits start to take action just as they did when the conservatives introduced the poll tax. They were voted out at the next elections and so will labour. History tells us that Britain likes its freedom.
You can only poke a stick at the hornet’s nest so long before you get stung…