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The poll tax riots were a series of riots in British towns and cities during protests against the Community Charge (commonly known as the "poll tax"), introduced by the Conservative government of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.
A leaflet explaining the Community Charge (the so-called "poll tax"), Department of the Environment, April 1989. The Community Charge, commonly known as the poll tax, was a system of local taxation introduced by Margaret Thatcher's government whereby each taxpayer was taxed the same fixed sum (a "poll tax" or "head tax"), with the precise amount being set by each local authority.
In November 1989 the All Britain Anti-Poll Tax Federation was set up largely by the Militant tendency as a national body which included many Anti-Poll Tax Unions. [2]Prior to the first conference of the Fed, a steering committee was organised by 20 regional anti-poll tax federations, with Tommy Sheridan as chair and had gained the support of 15 Labour MPs.
The first anti-poll tax union was established in Maryhill, Glasgow, April 1987. [3] An All Britain Anti-Poll Tax Federation ("the Fed") was set up to co-ordinate the activities of the local unions. The Anti-Poll Tax Unions played a major part in the legal actions in which around 20 million people were summoned for non-payment of the tax.
The Abolition of Domestic Rates Etc. (Scotland) Act 1987 (c. 47) was an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom.. The Conservative government of Margaret Thatcher was committed to the reform of local government finance; the solution decided upon by the mid-1980s was the introduction of the per-capita community charge – informally called the poll tax – and the abolition of the previous ...
Don't Pay UK cited Margaret Thatcher's poll tax ("community charge") in 1989 and 1990—a tax with a fixed cost for each adult in the country—as a parallel. [5] [23] 17 million people refused to pay the poll tax, leading to its removal in 1991. [5] [3] Instead, Council Tax was introduced by John Major in 1993. [12]
A large London demonstration against the poll tax in Trafalgar Square on 31 March 1990 – the day before it was introduced in England and Wales – turned into a riot. Millions of people resisted paying the tax. Opponents of the tax banded together to resist bailiffs and disrupt court hearings of poll tax debtors. Mrs Thatcher refused to ...
Poll taxes are regressive, meaning the higher someone's income is, the lower the tax is as a proportion of income: for example, a $100 tax on an income of $10,000 is a 1% tax rate, while $100 tax on a $500 income is 20%. Its acceptance or "neutrality" depends on the balance between the tax demanded and the resources of the population.