can you pay council tax annually?

thewinkshow

rather than monthyl? do you save by doing so?

busiscoming2

Yes you can and no you don't!

CLAPTON

yes you can pay annually (in advance)
and my council gives a 1% discount

CIS

The statutory instalment scheme is 10 payments from April to January however some council's will vary this and give a different plan however , in any case, even if they give you an instalment plan there is nothing to stop you paying in a lump sum at the start of the year or paying a lump sum later in the year to clear the remaining balance in full.

Some council's , like Clapton's , will give a discretionary discount but most wont as they have to cover any loss from this (in real terms they wouldn't actually lose much but in these times any money lost adds up).

CLAPTON

CIS wrote: »

The statutory instalment scheme is 10 payments from April to January however some council's will vary this and give a different plan however , in any case, even if they give you an instalment plan there is nothing to stop you paying in a lump sum at the start of the year or paying a lump sum later in the year to clear the remaining balance in full.

Some council's , like Clapton's , will give a discretionary discount but most wont as they have to cover any loss from this (in real terms they wouldn't actually lose much but in these times any money lost adds up).

giving a 1% discount is equivalent to an interest rate of just over 2%
so the discount is self financing

Milarky

CLAPTON wrote: »

giving a 1% discount is equivalent to an interest rate of just over 2%
so the discount is self financing

Yes, but we can get 4% from a bank so the asking should really be about '2%'

You'd have thought they would be grateful to have the cash, but then there's that problem of not being able to trust themselves to eke it out over the full 12 months.

BTW, the 10 months thing, didn't that only come in because when we changed from 'rates' to the 'poll tax' it wasn't feasible without a 'pay-as-you-go' scheme for collections?

lincroft1710

Milarky wrote: »

Yes, but we can get 4% from a bank

Don't be so secretive, which bank is giving 4% interest?

CIS

giving a 1% discount is equivalent to an interest rate of just over 2%
so the discount is self financing

The Council Tax collected tends to go straight in to the spending pot for day to day running so whether it would stay around long enough to earn the interest back is hard to say.

CLAPTON

CIS wrote: »

The Council Tax collected tends to go straight in to the spending pot for day to day running so whether it would stay around long enough to earn the interest back is hard to say.

well
if then no-one paid up front then the council would have to borrow the money which would be costly, so early payer discount is even more cost effective

CIS

well
if then no-one paid up front then the council would have to borrow the money which would be costly, so early payer discount is even more cost effective

In general The money rolled forward and the government grants top up the spending fund so that money doesn't need to be borrowed.( IIRC I dont actually think the spending fund is allowed to be topped up by borrowing)

In my authority you can number the up front payers in the tens rather than the hundreds so it would be minimal issue anyway .

elmer

We get hundreds of annual payers, but after April 1st this year we will no longer take Council Tax payments in cash, so I assume that this will be the last year of counting £1000 worth of £2.00 coins, the old tenners that are no longer legal tender, and the bags of mixed coins that is the joy of working during the first week in April.

Elmer