Taxes

Abstract

Taxes are not only raised for spending by the central government. Quite a lot of public expenditure is handled at ‘local’ level, by the council in the Town Hall down the road. British local authorities employ a million people and spend many millions of pounds every year on vital but humdrum things such as drains, roads, parks, fire services, schools, etc. They raise some of the money from a local form of taxation called the ‘rates’ which is levied on the occupiers of buildings and land.