Council Tax reduction on second home

tyllwyd

Also, I'm wondering about your income tax situation - if you have always paid income tax in Germany, would it complicate the situation if you start saying that your business is based in the UK? I don't suppose you would have to pay tax twice, but it might get complicated if the HMRC suddenly decided you should have been paying UK tax. I don't know enough about tax to know if that would be much of an issue, but you might want to check the situation out before you start off.

lincroft1710

It is assumed you are already paying council tax on one home, the theory is to lessen the total council tax bill where there is more than one home. However there are those who believe 2nd home owners should pay MORE for privilege of having 2nd home rather than less.

arunadasi

Well, I got an email response yesterday. They gave me the 10% discount for second home, but it cancels out the 25% single person discount so it makes me worse off than before! Silly me, not to have checked the details more carefullyL single person discount only counts on the FIRST property!
However, they made me aware that my husband is probably eligible for a 25% discount due to severe mental impairment so I am applying for that.

arunadasi

lincroft1710 wrote: »

. However there are those who believe 2nd home owners should pay MORE for privilege of having 2nd home rather than less.

Having a second home is not necessarily a privilege; in some cases it is a burden. I would much prefer to not have had that expense. And a second home is not necesarily owned; you still have to pay council tax if you are renting.
I only bought my second home because a mortgage is so much cheaper than renting. The two bedroom property we rented for the first 2 years was £700 a month. When I first bought my flat it was £450 a month interest-only mortgage; it went up to almost £700 a year ago but now it is down to £300 thanks to my tracker mortgage! Much cheaper, but still we are by no means rich or privileged. The move was dictated by unpleasant circumstances, not by privilege. Those who can stay in one home as a family are in my eyes very lucky, and I would much have preferred that and would have saved heaps of money.

lincroft1710

Sorry arunadasi, but I'm getting confused. Do you currently have 2 homes in England or just one here, plus one in Germany.

Most (not all) 2nd homes in England are "holiday cottages", which are often in areas where housing is too expensive for locals who are priced out of the market by wealthy incomers. This often leads to bad feeling and resentment and also removes properties from the housing stock.

I can appreciate this point of view, but neither agree nor disagree with it.

CIS

TBH many councils will give 2nd home discounts on property where a person is only using it as the second home and their main home is abroad, we have given it in my authority.

Its all down to the wording in the legislation as it doesn't, to my knowledge, define that a persons main residence has to be in England/Wales for the the 2nd home discount to be applicable. I suspect however the legislation wasn't meant to be interpreted this way but until its gone through a tribunal it wouldn't be defined.

lincroft1710

In that case, CIS, what's to stop anyone who has a holiday home overseas or can "use" the overseas address of relative/friend claiming 10% reduction in CT.

arunadasi

lincroft1710 wrote: »

Sorry arunadasi, but I'm getting confused. Do you currently have 2 homes in England or just one here, plus one in Germany.
.

I have one home here (2 bedrom town flat) now and had one house, main home, in Germany, which has now been sold.

arunadasi

lincroft1710 wrote: »

In that case, CIS, what's to stop anyone who has a holiday home overseas or can "use" the overseas address of relative/friend claiming 10% reduction in CT.

Wouldn't they have to prove the foreign home is theirs? I sent proof to my council. IN fact, they have the address on file because I lived there for a year when my husand first got ill, left my kids in the UK flat together, where they didn't have to pay CT because they were both students.

CIS

In that case, CIS, what's to stop anyone who has a holiday home overseas or can "use" the overseas address of relative/friend claiming 10% reduction in CT.

Nothing TBH, only any checks the LA put in themselves.