Your Council Tax bill explained

​If you need help with your Council Tax bill and would like to speak to us face to face, you can visit us at one of our hubs or housing offices​. 

Your Council Tax bill should look a bit like this one. 

Click on the numbers for an explanation of each section.

1. Date of Issue
2. Reason for Bill
3. Account number
4. Property to which the bill refers
5. Banding
6. Charge for period
7. Calculations
8. Amount payable by you
9. Instalment plan and payment method
10. Name of liable person(s)

1. Date of Issue

This is the date your bill was posted to you. Any payments made after this date will not be shown on this bill. 

2. Reason for Bill

This section explains why the bill has been issued and will show one of the following reasons:

• Annual bill
  Your new bill for the next tax year.
• Council Tax Reduction
  The bill has been issued to show a change in your Council Tax reduction.
• Closed Account
  This bill is sent out when a billing period ends. e.g. when you leave a property.
• Change to Valuation Band
  This bill is sent out when the Valuation Office Agency has decided to reassess the band of your property.
• New Account
  This means a new account has been created for you at the property shown on the bill.
• Exemption
  This bill will show that an exemption has either been awarded or removed on your account.
• Discount
  This bill will show that a discount has either been awarded or removed on your account. 

3. Account number

This is your personal reference number which relates to your Council Tax account and period of liability. You may have a number of accounts at the property depending on the circumstances. You must have this number to hand to discuss your bill.

4. Property to which the bill refers

This is the address that the bill relates to. 

5. Banding

This is the band that your property has been valued at. Find out more about valuation bands.

6. Charge for period

This is the period of time that the bill covers. Bills are always set up to coincide with the financial year. If it is an annual bill it will always be from 1st April until 31st March for that particular financial year.

Also in this section you will see:

Balance Carried Forward: Any amount you owe from the previous financial year will be shown here.

Adjustments: This shows any adjustments to your bill. A negative (-) figure is a reduction from the total bill. A positive figure is an addition to the total bill. This will be for one of the following reasons:

• Council Tax Reduction 
• Single Person Discount
• Disablement Relief
• Unoccupied Discount
• Exemptions
• Refunds
• Write Offs
• Costs
• Transfers from other properties/accounts

7. Calculations

This is a calculation of the total amount you will need to pay showing any discounts and / or additions. 

8. Amount payable by you

This is the total amount you will need to pay for the period noted in section 6. 

9. Instalment plan and payment method

This section shows the dates you need to make your payments by and how you plan to pay your bill.

• Direct Debit - your payments will be taken from your bank account on the dates shown.
• Cash - Any other payment method including online payments, post office payments, debit/credit card payments and cheque payments.

Instalment amounts: This lets you know how much you will pay by each of the instalment dates. The first instalment is usually slightly different from the others. 

10. Name of liable person(s)

This tells you the person(s) or company liable to pay the Council Tax charges shown on this bill. More details on who is liable to pay Council Tax.