Fucking Council Tax Single Person Penalty

[Honper]

Or: why should I pay 50% more tax than my neighbours?

Council tax is a regressive abomination anyway and ofc like everyone else I resent paying it so my useless council can spend thousands on things like Tree Stories Near You or Four Foot Long Cycle Path Initiatives while failing to patch potholes so big that geese nest in them but still. As a single person I have a very particular axe to grind wrt paying 50% more TAX than someone in a couple.

I know that single life is more expensive, economies of scale yadda yadda and I already pay out proportionally more from my wages for bills, food and so on. I get that and it's not great but it's how it is.

But why is my tax liability so much greater than that of my married neighbours? I pay 50% more tax than each of them.

Come on, that's not right is it? It's not a bill. It's a tax. Single people's tax burden should not be so much more.

Or should it? AIBU?

You know about the single person discount right?

I'd go further and say it should be paid per person

Adults will have to pay for their children.

I thought single people got a discount

So - you didn’t apply for the single person discount?

The single person discount is 25%. Therefore I am taxed 75%. Couples are taxed at 50% each. So I pay 50% more than each of them. In tax.

Are your bins collected half as much as a coupled up household?

I don't particularly begrudge council tax, or that I pay 75% rather than 50%. As you say, it's a tax not a bill. Like saying "I don't have kids so I shouldn't pay for schools", you pay for the wider good of society, some of which you benefit more (or less) than others.

Single people get a 25% discount.

So as an adult couple you are liable for the tax on your property (so 50% each).

Whereas as the singleton in the property next door (assuming same tax band) you pay 75% on your own.

single rate is 25% discount

have no idea why your neighbours have a discount of 75%

Talking about paying per person though - do you not remember the fiasco that was the Community Charge?

Yes. Which is 50% more than each person in a couple.

Oh god community charge is definitely not the answer but neither is tipping an extra 50% tax liability onto single people.

Do you live in a massive house? And if you don't have DC, who pays for all those pot holes later on? Everybody could decide, yep, too hard, no DC. The who the hell pays for our care later on!

Don't they officially say that 50% of the total is for the house itself (bin collections, street lights etc.) and then the other 50% is for the people, based on two adults, hence a single adult only pays half of that?

They would probably see it that you're 'lucky' in having the house and its amenities and facilities all to yourself, so you're paying a premium for that 'privilege'.

Also, I suppose council tax is set for each area based on the potential take from all the houses in the area - so councils probably see it that you're already depriving them of some of their 'rightful' income by getting any discount.

You could get a lodger and share the cost.
You do know that the lower cost is the prize you get for having to share your space with someone else. Sometimes I would pay a premium to have the house to myself occasionally.

It’s a tax on the property not the person.
And you do get a partial discount. Odd post.

Maggie? Is that you, posting from beyond the grave??? Trying to get the OP to riot in favour of the poll tax?

Oh god community charge is definitely not the answer but neither is tipping an extra 50% tax liability onto single people.

But what would be the happy compromise? If you don't charge per person, and you don't charge largely based on the property, how do you charge it fairly, if you've decided that you ARE going to tax people as individuals/householders separate from income and other taxes?

Apparently the thinking around setting Council Tax was/is that 50% of it applies to the property, so all of that has to be paid; and 50% applies to the occupants, so there is the single persons' discount.

It's slightly better than the Poll Tax / Community Charge horror, but not much. It's very unfair for single adults on low fixed incomes who cannot get any benefits.

75% of a lot of money is still a lot of money.

Aren't potholes paid for with road tax?

I can see people are struggling with the maths:

example (not exact figures)

Single person = £1000
minus 25% single discount = £750

Couple = £1000
therefore each pays £500

so if you live on your own you pay £750, but if you have someone living with you it’s £500 per individual. The difference between paying £500 and £750 is a 50% increase. That’s a lot!

They tried that. The Poll Tax.
It didn't end well.

I don't think most people realise how little Council Tax pays for.

The huge majority of council spending comes from government grants which have been slashed over the past decade.

For the same reason you don't get a discount on your mortgage if you own your house alone. It's a charge on the property, not the occupants. It's not rocket science.

No I do not live in a massive house.

Tbh that's a whole other bone of contention. I live in a tiny flat. Really teeny tiny. As tiny as a mumsnetter's wrist. But because my teeny tiny flat was built after 1996, they've assessed it as band c. They can do that because the last time any property was valued for CT purposes was over quarter of a century ago, so anything built after that they assign notional value to. And this entire area where I am, all flats built after that date are band c. Flats built before that on the next street are band a. Even though they are bigger and have balconies which I don't. So I can't even appeal, because to appeal your property needs to be valued differently from similar properties. And we are all band c. Block upon block of us.

But. When there is a couple in one of these flats, they pay 50% less tax each than I do.

Yep. Agree. Gets on my nerves. Yet another financial penalty for being single.
And I don't even get my bins emptied for it as I have to pay for commercial collection as I live in a block of flats. I get nothing for it.