Council Tax Question

jonny2510 · 19 September 2006 at 11:38PM

I've just bought my first house, so have never dealt with/paid council ax before.

A few days after I moved in I recieved a bill from the 7/8/06 - 31/3/07.

The yearly charge should be £821.19, and so it states the charge left should be £533.19 (1 payment of £88.19 due by 25th Aug + 5 payments of £89 on 25th of each succeeding month).

It also stated I could pay by DD or credit card (I've decided to use CC to get cash back/take advantage of interest free credit etc).

My questions are
1) Should I recieve a bill/reminder from the council every month, or am I left to my own devices to remember (as it is now the 19th and I haven't recieved a reminder for this month yet). It's Wigan coucil if that makes a diference.

2)Do the above payments/calculations work out (from the annual charge of £821.16) as I was always under the impression that you got one or two payment breaks/months off with council tax.

All answers/input are appreciated

seven-day-weekend · 20 September 2006 at 12:11AM

In my experience, they will only send you a reminder if you forget the payment( and then ONLY one - after that it is a summons).

I'd pay by monthly dd if I were you.

seven-day-weekend · 20 September 2006 at 12:13AM

In answer to your other question - it's halfway thrrough the financial year, AFAIK that's why it goes on for the rest of the year.

Next year, starting in April, if you have paid up to date, you should be able to opt for ten monthly payments.

Looking at it again, you have got February and March off anyway?

jonny2510 · 20 September 2006 at 12:47AM

seven-day-weekend wrote:

Looking at it again, you have got February and March off anyway?

I can't believe I missed that

I've been looking at it tonight, and even calcualted it to January (but somehow didn't make the connection. Thanks for pointing that out

)

As for paying by direct debit, I'll simply make sure that I pay it on the same day all my other direct debits come out of the account, so I can keep on top of things. I've arranged everything to come out on the same date (except BT, who won't let me change the date as they say it's fixed).

Thanks for the prompt replies, and making everything clear to me

arnie&caseysma! · 20 September 2006 at 1:06AM

Working it out on a daily charge from 01/04/06 to 21/03/07 it is approx £2.249 per day. Over the term left that you will be responsible for their calculations are correct.

CIS · 20 September 2006 at 8:08AM

Generaly speaking we allow only payments for april to Jan (10 months) in order to clear the accounts before the new tax yr (Iam a council tax officer), but in cases where the payments would be too high,we have discretion to allow payments in to feb and march.

Effectively your payments due are the (annual charge / 365 ) * the number of days.
Divide this figure by the number of months your paying over and in the first month they take the odd payment with the pence taken first and the remaining payments as whole pound only.

Are you living on your own or with a disregarded person (ie student ) ?, if so remeber your 25% discount.

I would advise paying by monthly DD, its so much easier to work with and ensure payments are made propmptly.

You wont get a monthly update (unless your council has a different policy), but you can usually ring up and ask or check your balance on the councils website.

msmicawber · 20 September 2006 at 8:21AM

I don't think anyone's answered your first question yet - you just tend to receive a bill at the beginning of the financial year, not monthly. It's best to set up a standing order. There are two months per financial year when you don't pay since the annual amount is divided into 10 parts for payment, but if you start paying in the middle of the financial year, you've already missed that.

Council Tax Question

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