The Future of Council Tax in Scotland

Closes 30 Jan 2026

Opened 27 Oct 2025

Contact

Local Taxation Mailbox

Local Taxation Unit

LocalTax@gov.scot

Overview

The Scottish Government and the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (COSLA) are seeking your views on the future of council tax in Scotland.

Council tax is a vital source of funding for local services such as schools, social care, roads, libraries and waste collection. The council tax system has remained largely unchanged since its introduction over 30 years ago.

This consultation forms part of a joint programme of work led by the Scottish Government and COSLA which is seeking to build consensus on reforms to council tax. The aim of this consultation is to gather views from individuals, households, communities, and organisations across Scotland on potential approaches to reform.

The key areas under consideration include:

  • Updating the market reference point (currently based on values as at 1991) to reflect current market values and modernise the tax base.
  • Exploring approaches to revaluation, including localised revaluation where band thresholds could differ by council area to reflect local housing markets.
  • Introducing options for new council tax bands at the top and bottom of the scale to ensure the system is more progressive and proportionate, or to smooth the differences between tax rates.
  • Considering transitional measures such as phased implementation and deferral options to help households adjust to any changes, as well as reductions to support lower-income households.

The findings from this consultation, together with the wider programme of engagement, will help support informed public debate and further consideration in the Scottish Parliament.

Your views are central to this process. We encourage you to take part in this consultation and contribute to building consensus on how council tax in Scotland should change in the future.

Read the consultation paper. The consultation paper contains full background information for this consultation. You may find it useful to read or refer to while responding.

Consultation questions preview

The consultation questions are included here for your reference. Please click 'Begin consultation' at the bottom of this page to proceed.

  1. Do you think the current council tax system in Scotland needs to be reformed? 
  2. Do you think property values used to calculate council tax should be updated to reflect current market values, instead of using 1991 values (i.e. should there be a revaluation of every property in Scotland)? 
  3. How often do you think property values should be reviewed and updated for council tax purposes? 
  4. Following a revaluation, do you think council tax band property value thresholds should be set at a national level or vary by council area? 
  5. Which of the following is most important to you in the design of council tax bands? 
  6. Which of the potential council tax systems do you most support? 
  7. Which of the potential council tax systems do you least support?
  8. Do you support the establishment of a transitional relief scheme to limit how much a household’s council tax bill can increase each year following reform? 
  9. Which transitional relief scheme would you prefer? 
  10. Do you support the establishment of a council tax deferral scheme for homeowners?
  11. In your view, who should be eligible to receive support from a council tax deferral scheme?
  12. Should households who defer payment pay interest on the amount deferred?
  13. Do you think the Council Tax Reduction scheme should be expanded to support more households following any reform?  
  14. Which changes to the Council Tax Reduction scheme would you support?
  15. Do you have any information you wish to share that has not already been discussed in the paper on the impact of council tax reform?
  16. Please provide any other comments or views on the consultation themes or council tax reform that you have not been able to share above.

Useful information about responding to this consultation

As you complete your response, each page will provide the option to 'Save and come back later' at the bottom. This means you can save your progress and return to the consultation at any time before it closes. If you don't use this feature and leave the consultation midway through, your response will be lost.

Once you have submitted your response, you can enter your email address to get a pdf copy of your answers sent to you.

On the 'About You' page at the end of this consultation, organisations will have the opportunity to tell us more about their work and/or how their response was informed.

After the consultation has closed there will be a few months delay before any responses are published. This is because we must check any responses to be published abide by our Terms of Use.

All relevant submitted responses will be analysed. This may be carried out by third party organisations who Scottish Government, its executive agencies or non-ministerial offices, contract to do this work. Such data sharing will be governed by appropriate contractual arrangements to keep your data secure.

An analysis report will usually be published some months after the consultation has closed. This report will summarise the findings based on all responses submitted. It will be published on the Scottish Government website and you may be notified about it if you choose to share your email address with us.

You can also join our consultation mailing list where we regularly list newly published analysis reports (as well as new consultations).

Give us your views

Begin consultation

Interests

  • Communities and Third Sector
  • Economy
  • Housing and Regeneration
  • Main hub