Some years ago, our Illustrious Gubmint brought in one of the most blatant acts of highway robbery yet.

I refer of course to our “Property Tax”.

It was supposed to be an emergency thing after the financial meltdown, but when has an emergency tax ever been abolished?  Once they get their grubby little paws on your money, they are not going to let go.

There was an outcry at the time, but the Euro signs were lighting up the eyes of the taxman, so first we were cajoled, then bullied and finally we were told that if we didn’t cough up they would take it from source – our salaries, pensions or whatever.  They were going to steal that money before we ever get it whether we like it or not.  There were no exceptions though I think some on social welfare may have been exempt.

It was based on the valuation of the property.  This was easy enough to calculate in housing estates but damn difficult elsewhere.  So they brought out a table as a “guide”.  I looked up my area and it gave various categories of property such as whether it was detached or not and how many bedrooms it had.  I just picked the cheapest valuation of the lot and left it at that.

But the more intelligent of you will notice that there is a degree of unfairness in that system.  Take for example an old lady [or indeed an old man] living in a large house in a more prosperous area.  Her family has owned the property for many generations and she is now living there on her own, and drawing a small private pension.  She is poor but happy, when along comes the taxman who reckons her house is worth a couple of million and robs her entire pension as a result.  There is no taking into account a persons income, as their logic is that if you own a massive property then either you can afford it or you should move to a much cheaper one in order to pay them what they demand.  We live in a caring state.

They are now claiming that all our houses are undervalued since the economy started to recover, and are threatening to increase everything in accordance with the rise in house prices.  Now that we are out of the emergency they want to probably double the “emergency” tax.  There’s greed if ever…

They overlook one simple point though.  My house is worth nothing.  Not a cent.  Nor does anything I own.  Any thing only has a value when it’s involved in a transaction.  I haven’t a clue what I could sell this house for – anything between a hundred thousand and a million I suppose, depending on what someone is willing to pay at the time.  But in the meantime it’s worth nothing until such time as it ever goes on the market.

I have a good mind to tell the taxman that my valuation is currently zero.

Do you think he would agree with my logic?