Second home-owners to bear brunt of tax shake-up

Britain's highest earners are to be targeted by the punitive hand of the tax man once again, after local authorities were given the go-ahead to abolish the council tax reliefs that currently apply to second homes. The Communities Secretary, Eric Pickles, has given the green light this week for the first major changes to the rules governing council tax since it was first introduced in 1993. The move will give the local authorities, which are responsible for the setting and collecting of their own council taxes, greater flexibility to charge full rates on second homes. Second homes are currently subject to rebates of between 10 and 50 per cents on the total bills. Pickles is also considering allowing the discounts on empty properties to be done away with, which can be up to 100 per cent for a whole year. The abolition of that discount, however, is aimed at stopping banks from clinging on to properties they have repossessed and releasing more properties to ease the pressure on the national housing stock. There are estimated to be around 250,000 second homes in the UK, with the largest proportion of them in the holiday area of Cornwall, but with many in some of London's most exclusive boroughs, including Kensington and Chelsea and Westminster.

http://www.50percenttax.co.uk/index/2011/10/31/second-home-owners-to-bear-brunt-of-tax-shake-up.html