ROOF TAX

noun (Business World) (Politics) In the UK, a derogatory nickname for any property-based replacement for the community charge or poll tax. Etymology: Formed by compounding; whereas the poll tax is a tax on heads (see poll tax), the roof tax taxes people on the roof over their heads. History and Usage: The nickname roof tax first arose as a Conservative retort to Labour politicians' attacks on the community charge and their insistence on calling it a poll tax; any Labour government, they said, would remove the community charge only to replace it with an even more unfair roof tax, based on the same principles as the old rating system. When the Conservative government announced its review of the community charge in April 1991 and it became clear that the proposed new council tax was likely to be based--at least in part--on property ownership, Labour politicians were able to turn the taunt back on the taunters, calling the council tax a roof tax (as well as a great many other names). The worst outcome would be Labour's roof tax which, by combining a property tax with one on incomes, really could be used to squeeze the rich. The Times 8 Mar. 1990, p. 14