r/AskEurope • u/ErebusXVII Czechia • 2d ago
Culture What's an outdated law/practise/mechanic/whatever, which is still in use, completely ignoring new advancements?
Example: Car brackets based on engine displacement, used for calculating insurance/tax. I'm not sure if it made sense when it was introduced, but it definitely doesn't make sense today. Because what originally was an emission related regulation, today it can cause situation, where more environmentally friendly cars can be charged more, just because they have bigger engine.
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u/Anaptyso United Kingdom 1d ago
In most of the UK local government is partially funded by a property tax called "Council Tax". Houses are put in to bands according to their value, and each band has a different level of tax.
That sounds reasonable.... but it gets a bit weird, because the value part is based on how much the property would have been worth at a specific point in the past. In Wales it's 2003. In England and Scotland it's 1991.
Every so often there's calls for the bands to be recalculated, but it's always too much of a hassle so doesn't get done. Instead there's a weird situation where new properties have to be valued as if they existed before they were built.
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u/crucible Wales 1d ago
The best bit is this replaced a somewhat controversial system called Poll Tax, which was trialled in Scotland and literally caused riots.
Poll Tax was based on how many people lived in a house. So a couple living in the same size house as a family of four or five next door paid less, as they used less council services.
Now you can have the same families living in the same situation but they pay the same tax.
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u/lorarc Poland 1d ago
But does it look at what was there in 1991? Is a house built on outskirts that's now really closed to centre still considered to be in middle of nowhere? What about a house built in a place of old factory or landfill, do you value it as if the house was still surrounded by a landfill?
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u/vakantiehuisopwielen Netherlands 1d ago
You’re lucky.. houses are recalculated every year here. It’s calculated on the previous year, date January 1st.
So this year I pay for the virtual value of 1-1-2024.
Usually in January or February you get the estimation. You can make an appeal.
You can also use it to lower the mortgage interest.
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u/indistrait Ireland 1d ago edited 1d ago
It's a small enough one but we still have to pay a TV license fee if you own a TV, and it funds the national broadcaster.
It's a flat rate, from the days where only well-off people had TVs. Nowadays, it's the better-off people who are more likely not to own a TV, yet they can still view the same content online on a laptop or tablet. So the people most able to afford it probably pay the least.
It also costs a fortune collecting and enforcing the rules.
It should just be rolled into regular taxes.
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u/Jwgrw Denmark 1d ago
That is exactly what happened here in Denmark. The tv licens was made a regular tax and the price immediately dropped, as more people paid the license and the cost of collecting it fell.
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u/indistrait Ireland 1d ago
In fairness, loads of governments have talked about reforming the license fee. There was an accounting scandal not long ago at RTÉ, our national broadcaster, so there may finally be the momentum to make it happen .
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u/Masseyrati80 Finland 2d ago
I'm not sure if the situation still stands, but I heard some years ago that the use of certain types of fertilizer seem to have gone down by something like 90% in the timespan of decades.
The only reason for this statistic is that the stuff is now approx. 10 x more concentrated, meaning there's practically no change in the amount of the actual fertilizing chemical being used, it's just suspended in a much smaller amount of water.
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u/Vince0789 Belgium 2d ago
Property tax being based on what it would cost to rent the property in 1975; this value is indexed but completely ignores the current demand.
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u/Useful_Cheesecake117 Netherlands 11h ago
According to the Metropolitan Police act, it is forbidden tio carry a.ladder over a footway from one house to another.
**54 Prohibition of nuisances by persons in the thoroughfares.^
Every person shall be liable to a penalty not more than level 2 on the standard scale, who, within the limits of the metropolitan police district, shall in any thoroughfare or public place, commit any of the following offences; (that is to say,)
(...)
8.Every person who shall roll or carry any cask, tub, hoop, or wheel, or any ladder, plank, pole, showboard, or placard, upon any footway, except for the purpose of loading or unloading any cart or carriage, or of crossing the footway:
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u/Useful_Cheesecake117 Netherlands 11h ago
It is forbidden for a member of parliament to wear a suit of armor to rhe parliament
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u/jinxdeluxe 2h ago
Have you heard about our lord and saviour, the fax machine?
(Germany, famously still relying on fax machines)
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2d ago
[deleted]
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u/milly_nz NZ living in 2d ago edited 2d ago
That’s…literally how laws work. It’s not a specific “thing”. 🙄
By contrast, a dumb-arsed outdated law in England is that women can be (and are still) prosecuted for getting an abortion if they don’t estimate their date of conception correctly, and accidentally abort outside the legally allowed time without medical consent. That law needs to be decriminalised yet it’s still on the books.
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u/crucible Wales 1d ago
Oh, we have lots of old or odd laws in the UK that were never technically repealed, but are made rather irrelevant by the fact that it’s not the Middle Ages any more, or other laws just overrule it.
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u/Anaptyso United Kingdom 1d ago
Another odd UK one. When the office of Prime Minister effectively emerged, the PM was given a house to use on a small side road in central London. He decided to do some of his work from his study there, and it accidentally evolved in to being were the government was run from.
Being the UK, where people are allergic to changing traditions, it just stayed that way. Walk through Whitehall now and you'll see a row of huge grand looking government buildings, and wedged between two of them is a little road with a small set of terraced houses on it. Despite being surrounded by much better suited offices, the government is still run out of what was built as someone's house along that road.
Every single government complains that the building isn't suitable, but they never move elsewhere because of tradition.