Poll tax

The Community Charge, popularly known as the "poll tax", was a tax introduced to fund local government in the UK in the late 1980s. It provided for a single flat-rate per-capita tax on every working adult, at a rate set by the local authority, For example a Billionaire living alone in a mansion would be eligible to pay less poll tax than a family in a small flat. There was mass non payment of the tax around britain and even an MP was sent to prison for not paying. In 1990 a protest on the poll broke out into mass violence in London. The tax was one of the main reasons for the downfall of Marget Thatcher, and because tax was so intensely unpopular, and was abolished within a few years, in favour of the Council tax, which was similar to that which it had initially replaced.