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.

What does council tax pay for?
Local services such as planning, transport, highways, police, fire, libraries, leisure and recreation, rubbish collection and disposal, environmental health and trading standards.

Council tax pays for council spending including services like that but it also pays for all the shite the council throw money away on from image consultants to Town twinning and in the case of Scotland, spending god knows how much rebranding and putting Gaelic on public services in a place where less than 1% of the population even knows any Gaelic. Polish would have benefitted more!

Council tax bands however are unfair in my opinion. A single person in a mansion utilises less council services than a house share of 4 adults in a small property. I don't agree at all that it should be up to a landlord to pay. He or she owns a house, they don't use it or the services connected to it.

It's to pay for services supplied to a person, any person, living in the property, whether they own it or not. It's not a property tax.

Are you suggesting that as a tenant you don't produce rubbish that needs disposing of, you don't expect the streets to be lit and roads maintained, you don't expect schools and libraries to be kept open?

Landlords would just add it to the rent

Have a look at www.moneyadviceservice.org.uk/en/articles/how-to-save-money-on-your-council-tax-bill

It’s a tax on services people use, from libraries to bin collection, from parks to street lighting.

Not on property. You could of course have googled it to find out for yourself, now we have this amazing invention called the internet...

littlepaddypaws You read me wrong. I think that only 25% discount for single occupiers is unfair. I feel it should be 50% discount.

A single person pays just 25% less than a household that may have 3 or 4 working adults in it. They are obviously using more services.

It's a tax based on occupation of a property, rather than ownership of a property. However some councils charge even though a property is empty on the basis of notional occupancy. Maybe that's the OP's beef, that they've been asked to pay CT on an empty property?

flirty okay, thanks for that, i understand you now

If council tax goes towards all these things mentioned then our council needs to be taken to task about where the money is really being spent. The high street is filthy, the library dated and overtaken by a council department etc. For the first time in years I'm considering moving once DD is in secondary school. Billions spent on a football pitch on the high street but zero care put into the surrounding areas. I just do not get it.

It's not a tax on property, it's a tax on services provided by your council. So for example social care, policing, fire services and all the mundane things like bin collections and grass verge cutting. Since as a tenant you use the same services in your community as a homeowner does, why do you think you shouldn't you pay towards it?

Can people stop bleating about bins please? Tax is money levied by government. In the case of council tax it is levied against domestic property.

Local authorities are funded by four types of levied funds, of which council tax is the smallest tranche.

People paying council tax aren't buying anything, they are paying a levy demanded by government. In the case of tenants, the demand is levied against an asset that another person owns. Any other tax that a private individual pays is based on money personally earnt, goods personally purchased or assets personally owned. Council tax is an anomaly in this.

Council tax income goes to the council who use it towards providing local services with additional income coming from Central Govt from our IncomeTax.

Much of this money pays for services we all use such as education, fire service and police service, refuse collection, tree surgery, parks and recreation services, libraries, looking after roads, pavements and cemeteries etc.

These services aren't just used by property owners, they are used by everyone who lives in those properties.

It isn't a tax on home ownership. A landlord doesn't consume any more of those services than anyone else. Why shouldn't a tenant pay towards the services that they benefit from?

What about council houses? Do you think tenants shouldn't pay so the Landlord (the Council) has to pay itself?

We all have a responsibility to collectively pay for the services consumed locally. Some people don't have kids yet they pay full Council Tax forever, long after their education has been repaid. By your reckoning a tenant wouldn't contribute yet would use all the services a council provides for free.

An afterthought
Have you raised this because of the idea from the Labour party a couple of weeks ago that tenants shouldn't pay Council tax?

Education and police come out of centrally provided funds not council tax Midas - see link above.

My council tax bill breaks down what services it pays for, so bins, street lights, police, fire service, local amenities like the library, council run bus services etc. I have access to those services as a renter, so I pay for them.
In principle that's fair enough as far as I'm concerned, however if you want to talk about how heavy handed they are about it, or the fact that the services listed above have been cut to the bare minimum, the local library is hardly open, we don't get our roads gritted in winter because we're not a 'main route' so everything grinds to a halt, nearest police station is 15 miles away, nearest manned fire station is 10....... And my council have just been outed for paying £600 a time to move furniture for meetings a couple of times a month, well that'd be a different story. I do live semi rurally but it's not right out in the sticks either and 10 years ago there was a police station and manned fire station in the next town, a well stocked and accessible library and a library bus that visited outlying villages. The council ran a bus to the outlying villages during the day to local towns and shopping centre. The council tax has increased year on year, but the services cut while they spend silly money on silly things.
I do resent my council tax, not because I don't think I should have to pay it but because I'm paying more and getting less.

it doesn't make any difference surely?

if the landlord was the responsible payer then the costs of owning the property goes up by £2000 (or whatever) per year and so the rents will go up by £2000 per year and no one has any more money than they did before.

not everyone who rents is poor. there are rental properties where the rent is £10,000 per month - there should be property based taxes for the size and luxury of the home each family occupies as this can often be on a very different part of the spectrum than income level for all sorts of reasons. the flaw in the system in my view is that there shouldn't be single occupancy discounts - single occupants should downsize until they have a property they can afford the tax on as there aren't enough larger homes, and there should be more points on both the smaller and bigger ends of the scale as the disparity in levels of wealth and luxury is fast greater than the current range of council tax bands allows for.

In the case of council tax it is levied against domestic property.

It’s a hybrid tax, OP. The legal position is that it’s a combination of property and personal tax.

In any event - the tax is either paid by the occupant (who will have the ability to claim occupation-based reductions where relevant) or the landlord (who will add the cost to the rent anyway, and who will not be able to claim discounts reliably and has no incentive for doing so, so a single-occupier would probably pay more under that model.) The outcome for the resident is the same, except if they’re in a single-adult household where they’ll probably end up paying more.

What she is saying is right, it's a tax on the property itself.

I see it like a tax on the right to live in the property, rather than owning the property itself.

Tenants have an exclusive right to live there. Therefore they are taxed for it. If the house is empty, the landlord/owner gets the tax bill because they would have the right to live there.

And it is arranged that way because the money collected goes towards the services used in the community, whether or not they pay for them in their entirety.

As has been pointed out, it would just be stuck on top of rent if tenants weren't liable for it so it doesn't make a huge amount of difference.

Read the blurb that comes with your council tax bill next time EmmiJay. It’ll probably give a breakdown and the answer will almost certainly be mostly Adult Social Care.

If you disagree with their priorities then there are lots of ways you can get involved, push for things which you think should be higher up the list and suggest equivalent savings.

YABU. All that would happen is landlords would pass the cost onto tenants in the form of increased rent.

@scaryteacher that's really interesting, and the 25% discount for single occupancy makes perfect sense. It's a fifty percent discount on the personal element of council tax (half of the total amount). The other 50% being property related and essentially non negotiable.
@flirtygirl , scary teacher answered your point..

As the OP says one pays tax on “goods personally purchased”.
Surely renting a property is payment for goods/services (I.e you pay to reside in the house). It seems reasonable to me to pay tax on this ‘service’ which you receive, that is to say your accommodation.

As has been pointed out, it would just be stuck on top of rent if tenants weren't liable for it so it doesn't make a huge amount of difference.

Oh yeah they would for sure. But I can see what she means, it's a bit shit paying council tax on someone else's property.

"it's a bit shit paying council tax on someone else's property." Only if you don't use the local services either.

I mean you are already paying their mortgage plus extra usually, so why do renters also have to pay their tax too?

A single person pays just 25% less than a household that may have 3 or 4 working adults in it. They are obviously using more services

Everyone pays for things they don't use. The childfree pay for schools, people pay for services like fire service, police, social services etc that they may never have needed.

I don't know what the answer is as the poll tax was 'pay per person' and that didn't work either.

Further to EmmiJay, are you sure the football pitch was paid for out of normal council funds? A lot of those facilities are funded from alternative sources, whether National Lottery, Sport England, Community Infrastructure Levy or a hundred other possibilities. Community Infrastructure Levy is the most likely source of funds for a spruce up of your local high street and your council may well consult on how to spend it - get on their mailing list.