community charge

British

noun

Also called: poll tax. (formerly in Britain) a flat-rate charge paid by each adult in a community to his or her local authority in place of rates

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

He opposed the introduction of the community charge, or poll tax as it came to be known, but was over-ruled by Thatcher.

From BBC • Apr. 3, 2023

In his memoirs, William Waldegrave, who was Conservative MP for Bristol West from 1979 until 1997, described the community charge as "all my own work".

From BBC • Jul. 20, 2015

British voters witnessed the power of reframing and renaming in the 1990s when the "community charge" was rebranded by opponents as the hated "poll tax."

From BBC • Feb. 13, 2015

The community charge, widely referred to as the poll tax, was a new system of taxation introduced to replace domestic rates.

From BBC • Dec. 29, 2014

Her response was the poll tax, properly known as the community charge, levied on an individual basis that would link council spending to local taxes.

From The Guardian • Apr. 8, 2013

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023