Council tax for postgraduates?

glider3560

I was chatting to one of my lecturers about postgrad study and she was saying that all PhD positions in her lab come with an annual tax-free stipend of around £13,000. We then spoke about how it was quite a generous sum and got onto council tax - neither of us knew the answer.

That got me thinking. Are PhD students exempt from council tax, in the same way as an undergraduate?

My lecturer wasn't sure as the PhD at my uni is 3.5 years of lab research (no lectures) and then 6 months of writing up. She was pretty sure the final 6 months were not exempt, but she didn't know about the first 3.5 years.

Could anyone enlighten me as I haven't found much on the internet.

QuirkyChemistry

Hi,

At my uni full time postgraduate students are able to get letters that entitle them to council tax exemption so as far as I'm concerned postgraduates don't pay council tax.

nervousftb_3

Hi, I'm a PhD student, and no I don't pay council tax! As stated above, you just need to get the exemption letter from your uni and send it to your council. During the 'write-up' period at the end of your phd you may have to pay council tax as you may no longer be registered as a student at your uni.

jrrowleyws

As the others have said, you won't need to pay.

If your still getting a stipend for your writing up period then you'll still be classes as a full time student so will get your council tax certificate to cover this. If not, register as unemployed and your council tax will be paid for you.

lynzpower

Does that also apply for people doing Masters? (taught or research?)

What about if you live with a working person ( eg partner)

jrrowleyws

If your on a full time masters then your a full time student and can ask your university for counciltax exemption.

If you live with someone else, then providing there is only two of you, your share will be removed, leaving the other with the council tax -single persons supplement so 75% of the tax.

[Deleted User]

As long as you are a registered full-time student you are entitled to counciltax exemption. You will need to prove that you are registered full-time student.

This includes both undergraduate and postgraduate both Masters and PhD.

If you are living with people who are not full-time registered students they will not be exempt and will have to pay the council tax (25% discount if they are the only eligible person in the house ie if they are the only person in the house required to pay council tax).

The confusion over the 6-month write up is likley due to the fact that some Universities provide this time as a buffer for PhD students to finish off their work, and that many institutions do not fund this period (what is often considered "extra time"), and thus although still finishing off their thesis they are not officially still registered as full-time students.

The reason for this "extra time" is so that students who have not finished thier thesis prior to this are still eligible to get their PhD and their work and effort is not wasted.

Every institution differs in this - and it often depends on where the funding comes from (The Uni itself, research councils, industry etc etc). Check with whoever is funding the PhD for clarification.