Popular pubs with quiz nights, football teams and dartboards could see their business rates double under secret new plans drawn up by the Government-run Valuation Office Agency.
A 60-page instruction booklet entitled Non-Domestic Rating Reference Manual orders council tax snoopers to obtain price lists of beers, wines and spirits and assess each pub as "standard local, village pub or student venue".
It tells them to go armed with an identity card, tape measure, digital camera and clipboard and says they should "note any TV (including satellite) facility, quiz nights, pool, darts or football teams in leagues".
They are also told to log whether there is a beer garden, children's play area or bowling green, and the manual asks: "Does the pub appear friendly and popular?"
The scheme, expected to result in big tax rises for pubs deemed "popular" to pay for Labour's public spending, has been condemned by the Tories.
Shadow Local Government Minister Eric Pickles accused Chancellor Gordon Brown of "planning a raid right into the heart of Middle England to tax the pub quiz".
He warned that if pubs were charged extra taxes for supporting social facilities, the landlords might just scrap them.
Some large busy pubs already pay up to £50,000 a year in rates, while a remote village pub paying just £1,000 a year could see its tax bill double by 2010 under the new rules.
The Mail on Sunday 14/10/07 pages 1 & 5
