Council Tax [1x Student + 1x Professional]

[Vini]

next year we're looking to get our own place, rented, because in this day and age who can afford to sign up to a house!

im a young prof, and my gf is a student.

i was told, that if we moved in together, we would get 25% off our council tax. not quite sure why, or if this is true?

can someone give me the lowdown?

[Starburn]

Yeah you will get 25% off..

I'm in a similar situation next year (although the other way around ).. hoping to get all sorts of benefits for being a poor student, even though the missus is working.. hm.

edit: btw, I think it's classed as a single person discount as a student is invisible when it comes to council tax, so it's as if there is only one adult in the house and thus 25% off.

[TiG]

I think this is true too... You need to get your GF to get an excemption form (i think the Uni can provide this) and get this to the right person for council tax in the council though. (but my info was for around about year 2000). but it is correct that single occupancy is 25% off council tax..

TiG

[shiato storm]

my dad reviewed tax law a while ago, was handy a few years ago when the council tried to take us all to court for excess of £2000, reposess our things and all the rest of it. clearly some idiot in the council office hadn't even bothered to check we were students. typically some self-righteous(sp) moron behind a desk scrubing around looking for ways to scrounge more money for his council because they're all so inept at actually keeping tabs on were the money is going and how there is no efficient spending at all.
needless to say a letter headed by my dad, from his chambers shut them up straight away. go dad!
councils are utterly Anal and will make you jump through hoops, despite the fact you've given them all the relavent information. just be sure when you send in exemption forms you get confirmation of receipt, in fact perhaps wouldn't be a bad idea to send recorded so you know for sure its in their hands.

[TiG]

Its not the council's responsibility Shiato, it was yours, i had to submit a council tax exemption every year i was at uni and living outside of halls, just like its my responsibility to claim 25% reduction with single occupancy. Hardly think its fair for you to critise someone for doing their job...

TiG

[Kitty]

me and fraggie are like that now, im the one working and hes the student, i get 25% off for being a single person and hes get his excemption form, you can try and get more off depending on your income and also see if you can get help with your rent (i think that also goes on your income) we applied for both but was turned down as income was to high, but you will have to talk to your council offices about all that,

we have now made a new claim as our situation have changed abit so im not sure whats happening with us yet but thats what we used to get, hope it helped?

[nameinuse]

Unless they've changed the rules you should get 50% off your council tax. 25% is the single-person discount, which only ever applies to one person living there.

However, if the house is half-or-more occupied by students, you get 50% off the tax, as they're council tax exempt. If it's more than half employed-people, you have to pay it all though. And there's no pro-rata based on how many students, either.

[shiato storm]

Its not the council's responsibility Shiato, it was yours, i had to submit a council tax exemption every year i was at uni and living outside of halls, just like its my responsibility to claim 25% reduction with single occupancy. Hardly think its fair for you to critise someone for doing their job...

it was their responsibility to realise we had actually sent them all the information they needed and also understand the property was owned by the university so non-students could not possibly have lived there! if they'd been doing their job properly they wouldn't have wasted time, theirs or ours...

[Rave]

Unless they've changed the rules you should get 50% off your council tax. 25% is the single-person discount, which only ever applies to one person living there.

However, if the house is half-or-more occupied by students, you get 50% off the tax, as they're council tax exempt. If it's more than half employed-people, you have to pay it all though. And there's no pro-rata based on how many students, either.

Well those weren't the rules when I was a student (and then working while living in a student house) which was about 1998-2001. Students are exempt from council tax, and so for the purposes of the calculation are basically invisible. If there's one working person living in a house then you get a 25% discount off the council tax (why the hell it's not 50% I have no idea, but it's not). If there are two or more you pay the full whack.

[Starburn]

It is definately 25% off still, in my IE year atm and we've done lot of software dev. around council tax/housing benefits etc. asked our resident expert..

[tim_n]

pretent you're living at home and pay nothing! :- D

[Atomic]

pretent you're living at home and pay nothing! :- D

Yer then get caught in the councils checks and get slammed with a count judgement againt the tax you owe... great idea. NOT.

[tim_n]

checks? Since when have they ever checked? We were students for three years, we were never checked.

My friends weren't students for three years, they listed the house as uninhabited!

Depends on your county I suppose.

Meantime, the buggers took so long to sort out my council tax when I tried to pay it (16 months of telephone calls and written letters!) I might as well have not bothered!

Meantime I've just received my latest threatening letter for a house I wrote to them and cancelled a year ago demanding I pay my £1,000 for the previous rentage, even though I got my letter stamped at their office :- )

Councils are useless. I worked for one for 6 months. The only reason I was able to vote in 2004 was because I was responsible for collating the voting forms for someone and noticed I wasn't on it even though I'd sent my forms in...

[herulach]

A lot of universities send off a list of addresses to the local council, although you may have issues if youre a fair distance away from uni.