Council tax and single person discount question

A471

Hi,

I know the question about council tax liability and expats has come up before. My wife and I have just been refused the single person discount with Ward v Kingston upon Hull 1993 quoted. She lives in the UK and I live abroad working full time for a non-UK company, getting back to the UK for about 25 days a year.

I understand from the ruling that the main reason the judge found in favour of the council was around security of tenure and where, if Ward lost his job tomorrow, he would return to, etc.

I have a couple of comments and one question about this. Firstly, I understand from the legislation that liability to pay council tax is determined on a daily basis. Therefore, today for example, I am secure in my full time job abroad. Secondly, if I lost my job tomorrow and returned to the UK then, if, according to the legislation, liability to pay council tax is determined on a daily basis, I would become liable.

My question, therefore is, is there an argument that, in terms of security of tenure for today (as liability is determined on a daily basis) my main and sole residence is abroad?

I realise these may seem a bit pedantic, but the case seems to talk about longer term security of tenure and yet the Council Tax is billed annually and liability is determined daily. If liability is determined daily, then surely security of tenure and main and sole residence should be detained daily?

I also realise I could be missing something very obvious as I am not a judge or lawyer!

TheCyclingProgrammer

You're conflating two different things: the way in which council tax is calculated and eligibility for the discount. Just because council tax is calculated daily doesn't change the fact that it's still considered to be your home when you're not there.

If you wanted to take your argument then you might as well say if you went and lived with your parents for a month that your partner should receive the single person discount while you aren't there. It doesn't work like that.