Why a centuries-old tax is struggling to serve modern Scotland |
Business (non-domestic) rates originated as a 16th century tax.
Whilst business rates have changed a little over the intervening centuries, the basic concept of a property tax still holds true.
But in the 21st century the nature of business operations, their relationship to place and the reliance (or not) on physical sites have altered fundamentally. Those ‘left behind’ at the margins of this global corporate world such as small businesses and town centres receive a raw deal from the rates and taxation approaches we take.
The shifting nature of business (global, tax havens, online, out-of-town, gig economy) has transformed the taxation landscape. The previous links between taxation, responsibility, authority, representation and place at a local (or often a national) level have been dismantled.
The purposes and intentions behind local property taxation have been long forgotten and the role of business taxation in any economy has become subject to increasing questioning if not outright avoidance.
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As these shifts have happened, so the non-domestic rates system has........