My first council tax bill, little confused.

BennyB1

Hi there, i'm going to try and make this easy to understand.
I really don't understand council tax much, so the point i'm trying to prove in which I think something is wrong, may be invalid or not make sense, but i'll try my best!

Anyway, i'm 20 years old, and now have my own apartment, this is my first council tax bill ever. I moved into my property on the 1st September 2011, along with my partner, and my friend. It's a 3 bed apartment. My friend was unemployed, so was therefore worrying about paying his share of council tax. I am a full time student, so i'm not held responsible for this, but myself and partner share all of our money, so whatever money we have, is for both of us. We've been together 4 years. Anyway, we knew her and the friend would be responsible for paying council tax, so he signed on for council tax benefit.

Before his claim had processed we received the council tax bill, which was approximately just under or just over £800 (Give or take £20 each way). The dates of payment on the letter said, that a payment was due on the 1st January, then again on the first of February, making up the £800 sum. This is where my first bit of confusion kicks in, I was under the impression that council tax isn't paid in February/March, so why am I making a payment on February 1st? Secondly, where exactly does the huge sum of £800 come from, when the bill arrived I had lived here 4 months, and my council tax band is B, so just over £100 a month.

Before the payment date came, we had an ammended bill arrive, which had a discount on it, due to my friends council tax benefit. The bill was now £552. But that dosn't really matter, hopefully this makes sense, but if he didn't claim benefit, they would be expecting the payment of £800. I really can't for the life of me work out of this is right or not. I payed the £552, but after doing it, all the above sprung to mind.

So going over it again simply, I moved in on the 1st September, and received a bill of £800. The bill dates were Jan 1st/Feb 1st, and was today told my next bill is April 1st. I have now lived here just over 4 months, and have just had to fork out £550 (but remember, thats with the benefit on it, so they were really expecting an £800 payment). I'm really hoping you are able to see the point I am trying to make. I just want to know how exactly council tax is worked out, and if this is right at all.

If I have confused you, please don't hesitate to ask me to try clear it up.
Thank you in advance.

agrinnall

The Council Tax year runs from April to March, so if you moved in on 1st September that means your bill will be for 7 months. £800 for that period doesn't seem unreasonable, although we don't know where you are, what band the property is in or how much your council charges for each band - you can look this up online, there should be a link from your council's website, or use can use the VOA site. As to the payment dates, the council are being nice to you. You are right that normally there is no payment in February, but if that applied in your case you'd have to pay the full £800 in January. As it is they have split the amount over 2 months to make it less painful for you to pay. I'm not sure why you've already paid £552, was the revised bill taking the CT benefit into account not also due in 2 instalments?

noh

The charging period is April to April.
You moved in on 1st September.
Therefore for this charging period you will owe 7 months council tax (7/12 of the total yearly amount) legally they can ask for the amount owed in one payment but they have allowed you to pay in two installments.

Next charging period you will be allowed to pay in 10 installments the first payable in April the last in January.

BennyB1

Hi agrinnall, thank you for your reply.

The £552 payed today was the total for both 1st Jan/1st Feb payments, I just decided to pay it all off in one. This was the amount left after the CT benefit was applied.

Me not understanding again, but, if council tax dosn't apply for February/March, why is my bill for 7 months, and not 5 (the amount of months I would have lived here come the end of January) as 7 is counting February/March?

Once again, i've never experienced council tax before, so i'm a newbie when it comes to it.

Thank you again.

ejc81

Council tax runs annually from April to March. Your bill depends on your local authority and your property band. You should be able to go to your own councils website and view what the cost is/was for your property band for 2011/2012.

The bill you have recieved and paid should be for the period from September 2011 to March 2012. Obviously you have already recieved benefit/discount for that bill/year.

The bill due April 1st will be for the period April 2012-March 2013 and should therefore be higher than the one you've just paid (this one will be for 12 months, you've just paid for 7 months, sep-april). Hopefully you would recieve some sort of discount/benefit again that would be deducted from the total but you should find that payments from April will be less as they will be spread over more months ie April to January. Does that make sense?


seems we all replied at once!

cte1111

Council tax is for the whole 12 months. Some payment plans are set up so that you pay 10 installments, e.g. if the total is £1200 for the year, then you pay 10 *£120. This means you would not make a payment in February and March as you would already have paid for the whole 12 months in the previous 10 months.

mrschaucer

You only get let off paying C tax in Feb and March if you've already paid the whole bill, that is, the annual bill divided by TEN.

ejc81

BennyB1 wrote: »

Me not understanding again, but, if council tax dosn't apply for February/March, why is my bill for 7 months, and not 5 (the amount of months I would have lived here come the end of January) as 7 is counting February/March?

Thank you again.

It does apply it's just that its spread over the months April to January so your paying for 12 months but in 10 installments not 12

Gothicfairy

You council tax does apply for 12 months of the year, the payment plans are normally split though so you get a "free" month.

Council tax runs 1st April to 1st April and as such you owe from Sept to April and then April to April..your payment plan is trying to get the whole payments in before the next one is due


I was typing as everyone else was replying..damn these fat figures