Why do tenants have to pay council tax?

[Goodnightseamer]

It's a domestic property tax. But tenants don't own any property, so they're paying tax on something they don't own. They didn't use to have to pay rates, but they have to pay council tax. Why? NB council tax is not a tax for use of services so that argument doesn't wash. It is a tax where liability is created by the existence of a domestic property. Which tenants clearly do not own.

Why do tenants have to pay council tax?

They don't always have to pay council tax. It depends on the contract.

It's a domestic property tax.

Even if the landlord is responsible for paying council tax in the contract, they will still pass on the cost to the tenant, just as they pass on the other costs of property ownership.

Council tax makes up a quarter of council spending. The majority of council funding comes from elsewhere.

Not where I live...

Because council tax is a tax on residents to pay for services they use!

NB council tax is not a tax for use of services so that argument doesn't wash.

Really? So what pays for the differing services provided by the local authority and other services (e.g Police, Town Council, if which a percentage goes to).

So, if you are renting and you don't think you should pay it, landlords will just load it on to the rent, so you'd indirectly pay it.

Because tenants have their bins collected, and can use the fire brigade if they need it, or go to the library...

Of course council tax pays for the services we all benefit from. Tenants will pay one way or another, either directly to the council or via the landlord when they add it to their rent. To suggest anything else is just silly.

I think with all the changes to being a landlord and the extra ones labour plan to bring in, no one in their right mind would rent out now as a form of investment. It doesn't stack up getting new BTL unless you dont own any other house or your own residence. So who knows maybe landlord will be paying council tax and rates very soon?

Of course it's a tax for use of services! If you insist on thinking of it as a property tax, it's a tax you pay because you live in the property. It's got nothing to do with who owns it.

Of course it pays for services. If 75% of services are funded by other means then 25% is funded by council tax. I dont understand why you say it doesnt help pay for council services

www.google.com/amp/s/www.moneyadviceservice.org.uk/en/articles/how-to-save-money-on-your-council-tax-bill/amp

I’m in NI and we still have rates. Some houses are let “£XXX plus rates” and some are let “£YYY rates included”

Either way the tenant is paying the rates. Either directly to the rates collector or via their landlord in the rent they pay. It’s for bins, street lighting, street cleaning etc.

Because implementing as a poll tax was a disaster!!!

Then it was a tax per person...

Op go Google what your council spends the council tax on. It is not a property tax.

It's a tax to raise income that go towards funding the local council services like other have mentioned above. You are sounding very ignorant.

I'm in Scotland and my council tax includes water rates!

What it's spent on is kind of irrelevant. What she is saying is right, it's a tax on the property itself. It just helps pay for the services you use. Let's face it, your actual money is probably paying your councillors salary, not your bin mens salary. But they wouldn't tell you where it went exactly would they if they thought it would piss people off?

As shown other countries make the landlord pay it.

Or are you just quibbling about what it is called. Are you objecting to the word tax?

It's wrong to say that Council Tax is simply a tax on property because it can be reduced depending on the circumstances of the tenant e.g. single occupancy, low income.

Tenants still get their bins collected. Expect the fire service to come out in an emergency. Will have their elderly care paid for if they don’t have the assets to fund this in old age.

Property owners DO pay extra taxes in other ways ( stamp duty, and in cases of 2nd and subsequent properties usually further income tax and capital gains tax). Tenants don’t pay these.

I am not opposed to everyone paying towards council services if they live in a eligible property, owned or rented. I do think it is unfair that if you live alone you only get a 25% discount.

I would hate a property tax as that penalises those who have saved and paid off their mortgage and even those who do jobs like property guardian and look after empty properties. Property needs to stop being seen in this country as just an investment and asset. It's needs to be seen as people' homes.

They didn't use to have to pay rates, but they have to pay council tax.

That's very true. Rates (council and water) were included in the rent but that stopped when the poll tax was brought in and it was the individual that was taxed, rather than property. Rents, however, didn't decrease to compensate for this. When the poll tax was abolished and council tax introduced, landlords didn't reabsorb the cost into the rent as with the old rates system and passed it on to the tenants.

Random The implementation was a disaster, the idea behind Community Charge was sound. Had there been a revision of Rateable Values and of the rate poundage (a general domestic updating), then people may well have welcomed Community Charge. My RV hadn't been uprated since the 70s.

It replaces the poll tax which was a flat rate per head, so it’s not exactly “property tax” OP. There is no “property tax” in U.K. There’s stamp duty land tax, capital gains tax, income tax from renting property.

You might as well ask...

Why do people who have no children have to pay taxes for schools?

Why do properties that are temporarily unoccupied still have to pay council taxes?

Property owners DO pay extra taxes in other ways ( stamp duty, and in cases of 2nd and subsequent properties usually further income tax and capital gains tax). Tenants don’t pay these.

Thats their problem though. You don't need two houses. If you buy extra you pay extra.

A simple google search will supply you with an answer, but anyway, here you go, if you can be bothered. www.which.co.uk/news/2017/11/where-does-your-council-tax-money-go/

It isn’t a pure property tax - if it were you wouldn’t get discounts for under-occupation or empty properties which take it within the sphere of a personal tax. As the Valuation Tribunal Service has said, it is a mix of a property tax and a personal tax.

It’s a bit weird to say it doesn’t help to fund council services though. I wonder what services you’d lose with a 25% funding cut?

If the landlord had to pay it and passed it onto their tenants then people on low incomes and disabled people would have to pay the full rate, instead of getting a discount as at present. I’m not sure that’s a very progressive idea.