Council tax - right for councils to charge in advance

landsberger64

dmg24 wrote: »

The phrase fat cats tends to refer to those in senior management, who will be earning far more than £25,000 pa.

A miniscule proportion of the staff - and widely loathed by the staff underneath them.

But if one reads a certain type of newspaper, it's all of us, we do no work, we sit around drinking coffee or going on endless 'elf & safety or equalities courses, and are rude to the few customers we meet.

Oh, and we target motorists for huge parking fines as well. That's about it.

wealdroam

landsberger64 wrote: »

But if one reads a certain type of newspaper, it's all of us, we do no work, we sit around drinking coffee or going on endless 'elf & safety or equalities courses, and are rude to the few customers we meet.

Oh, and we target motorists for huge parking fines as well. That's about it.

You sound a bit upset.

I must admit it is a novel idea of yours to slag off yourself before anyone else does.

shaun_from_Africa

Landsburger, could I suggest that you either look up exactly what the term "fat cats" actually means.

It doesn't refer to the 80% or more of council workers that actually do something for a living, but to the small percentage that are happy to sit on their backsides all day for a high wage (and even higher pension plan)

If I intended to state that all council workers were raking in money from highly subsidised pensions, this is what I would have said, but I didn't. I was very specific and very careful about what I stated.

A quarter of the average council tax bill is now being spent paying for the goldplated pensions of town hall staff.



The public bill for funding the generous schemes will soar by 17% this year, figures indicate.
This means that the cost to taxpayers of underwriting the guaranteed inflation-linked pensions of 1.6 million local council employees is half a billion poun

m4dh4tter

There can't be many people who can afford to pay all of their Council tax in one instalment a year in advance - bad enough in instalments!


You would be suprised just how many do pay it all in one go, there are loads.
Multiple house owners would come in with thousands and thousands in cash. ( checked through the relevent authority for money laundering.)
Elderly people who dont want the worry of monthy payments, and just your normal jo bloggs.

At the beginning of the financial year 'April' we used to be just non stop taking a years payments, those were the days. Was closed down last year now you have to pay through a post office or DD.

Foggster

When I worked in Council Tax I asked the same question about DDs being in 10 month and not 12 month instalments and was told this was due to the cost of Direct Debit and the cost of "running the tape" to retrieve the DD. If it was allowed for 12 months then the costs would have to passed to the Ctax payer. I dont know how much truth is in that but it does make sense.

forgotmyname

We moved into a new build property in May/June 1998, Took them until october to value the property and another
6 weeks to send a bill despite several calls. Eventually got a bill for what i 1st read as £93 a month. Thought that was dear.

When i read the bill properly it was for £93 A FORTNIGHT!!! Starting mid Dec and ending with the

last payment due before the end of Jan 1999. Wife phoned and got told tough. Pay the bill.

I phoned them and queried why the bill was from April when we got the keys may 28th and did not move in
until a week later. Also why the payment had to be paid before the end of Jan.
Might as well have talked to myself. Got an old tape recorder out and pressed the button to make it beep, Said
can you speak up a bit i am now recording this call.
Offered them £10 a week and if thats not enough take me to court.
Made excuses that would take me into next years billing i said so what.. Take it or take me to court, Finally
they agreed and sent me a payment book.

You didnt pickup that if you pay in installments and overpay they dont tell you.... naughty?

unholyangel

forgotmyname wrote: »

We moved into a new build property in May/June 1998, Took them until october to value the property and another
6 weeks to send a bill despite several calls. Eventually got a bill for what i 1st read as £93 a month. Thought that was dear.

When i read the bill properly it was for £93 A FORTNIGHT!!! Starting mid Dec and ending with the

last payment due before the end of Jan 1999. Wife phoned and got told tough. Pay the bill.

I phoned them and queried why the bill was from April when we got the keys may 28th and did not move in
until a week later. Also why the payment had to be paid before the end of Jan.
Might as well have talked to myself. Got an old tape recorder out and pressed the button to make it beep, Said
can you speak up a bit i am now recording this call.
Offered them £10 a week and if thats not enough take me to court.
Made excuses that would take me into next years billing i said so what.. Take it or take me to court, Finally
they agreed and sent me a payment book.

You didnt pickup that if you pay in installments and overpay they dont tell you.... naughty?

I wouldnt say thats expensive at all. In my area you're £100 a month for the very bottom bracket, obviously increasing depending which category your house falls into.

As for not telling you when you overpay, that must be your council. Mine told me i was overpaying during the rarity of me paying in cash as opposed to DD. I was purposely overpaying but tbh was a bit suprised they told me.

CIS

We moved into a new build property in May/June 1998, Took them until october to value the property and another
6 weeks to send a bill despite several calls. Eventually got a bill for what i 1st read as £93 a month. Thought that was dear.

The council (unless your in scotland) dont value properties and so they cant band it and issue a demand notice until they get notification from the valuation office of the correct date and band to use. The 6 weeks is about correct as the Valuation Office usually take 3-4 weeks to send the details to the council.

You didnt pickup that if you pay in installments and overpay they dont tell you.... naughty?

If you overpay then its your choice however any council tax demand notice issued will show any credit on the account at that stage.

Iris_Blue

Where I live you can pay it by DD 12 x monthly, which I actually prefer to 10.

I don't think it's a big deal its not something you can avoid paying so why get annoyed by it ?



P.s A lot of people actually like overpaying as then don't like to get to in arrears with it. The other side of that is that when I used to work for c/t dept .. I was amazed about people coming in and paying a £1 pw off c/t from years ago. Crazy.

CIS

The other side of that I used to work for c/t dept and I was amazed about people coming in and paying a £1 pw off c/t from years ago.

We still get them - usually come in and insist that they wasnt to pay the money against arrears they have but when you later need to speak to them about the arrears they claim they no nothing about them....