Council Tax Bill

Council tax

These Council Tax pages offer information on how your Council Tax is calculated, the easy ways in which you can pay and to see if you are eligible for any benefits or discounts.

What is Council Tax?

The Council Tax is one way in which the Council raises money to pay for the services it provides. South Ribble Borough Council needs income to provide services to its community. These services include:

• planning and economic development
• recreation and tourism
• environmental health
• refuse collection
• housing
• other services (e.g.: architectural, administrative, legal, personnel & financial support services)

The council also collects money to contribute to:

• Lancashire County Council
• Lancashire Police Authority
• Lancashire Combined Fire Authority
• Local Parish Councils

 
The Council Tax is a property tax with a personal element ie. it takes into account the value of a property and the number of people aged 18 or over who live there.

• You have to pay Council Tax for most properties.
• There is one bill for each dwelling whether it is a house, bungalow, flat, maisonette or mobile home or houseboat and whether it is owned or rented.
• The amount of the Council Tax is set each year by the Council and the tax is collected as laid down in the Local Government Finance Act 1992.
• The amount payable for a dwelling is based on the Band into which the dwelling has been placed by the Listing Officer at the Valuation Office.
• The normal Council Tax bill is based on a 50% property element and 25% each for 2 (or more) people in residence.
• The bill sent to you at the beginning of the financial year allows you to pay in 10 monthly instalments.
  

Overpayment of Council Tax.

Overpayments arise when either too many payments are made or your liability reduces, for example, when you move house. If your liability reduces and you have moved house within the area, any credit balance is transfered to your new council  tax account, providing both accounts are in one name only. If you have moved out of the area and the closed account is in your name only, the credit will automatically be issued to your new forwarding address.

South Ribble Borough Council has been invited to participate in an exercise to protect tax payers and ensure public money is correctly spent.

The National Fraud Initiative (NFI) is a biennial data matching exercise run by the Audit Commission to identify fraudulent and erroneous payments from the public purse.

South Ribble Borough Council will be providing council tax single person discount and electoral register data to the Audit Commission for cross-system comparison for the prevention and detection of fraud

A trial of this pilot exercise undertaken by the London Borough of Hillingdon identified £1million in savings.

South Ribble Borough Council is required to participate in NFI under Section 6 of the Audit Commission Act 1998. The authority is under a duty to protect the public funds it administers. It may share information provided to it, with other bodies responsible for auditing or administering public funds, in order to prevent and detect fraud.

For further information regarding data and the Data Protection Act 1998 please click here.