AIBU to ask you what the connection between council and NI is?

[BunnyDoodle]

I'm clearly new to the country (even though both my parents are British).

So I have a NI number and I pay council tax and I've been told the two are related. Can someone explain how?!

Do they enter my NI number into the system and see all the council tax I've paid so far or is it for other reasons?

To be very clear, I am not dodging council tax or any other tax for that matter. I am just curious and would like to understand how these things are connected.

Don't think they are related TBH - NI no is used to track your income tax. Council tax is based on the property rather than the individual

NI stands for national insurance. It's what you pay from your salary towards your pension.

It isn't related or linked to council tax.

So what's the number for?! Just to track NI contributions?

Isn't like the social security number they have over in the USA?

Your NI number is also a unique personal identifier, so it used, for example, by the tax authorities to verify that you are not using more than one allowance, for example, of tax-free savings and investments in an ISA, and I think for getting tax refunds into a pension fund.

If you are ever unemployed or claiming benefit you will get to know your NI number by heart because they keep asking you for it.

So if it is used by the tax authorities, then how come they don't include council tax?

Council tax is collected by local authorities.

Income tax collected by hmrc via employers (or direct if self employed)

so what's the information they see about someone against the NI number?

Do you mean that your Council Tax form required you to give your NI number?

No it didn't ask me that,

It depends on who can see it. The job centre (where benefits are claimed) can see what entitlements you have due to contributions made in the past. A bank just sends the list of new isa applicants to hmrc do they can check no-one opens more than their entitlement. An employer sends out to hmrc and gets a tax code back.

This tax code can give them reason to suspect you have multiple jobs as you have a different tax code if you have already used your tax-free allowance.

what exactly is your difficulty/confusion about?

your national insurance number is unique to you and is used to identify your earnings and deduct your national insurance contributions from your wages. this is done centrally and goes to the government and is used for things like the NHS
your council tax is related to your address and is collected locally by the local council and is used for services like libraries and rubbish collection
the more you earn the more ni you pay
the bigger your house is the.more council tax you pay