Council Tax

Brentwood Council is currently conducting a review of all Council Tax Single Person Discounts that have been awarded to residents who live alone.

Each year local authorities nationwide receive a high volume of applications for single person's discount. Sadly some of these applications are not genuine. The purpose of this review is to ensure everyone who claims the discount is genuine and to help identify fraudlent claims among Council Tax payers who are attempting to cheat the system.

If you have received a Single Person Discount (SPD) review letter please go to our Single Person Discount Review web page to find out what to do next.

Council tax is a local tax set by local councils to help pay for local services.

There will be one bill per dwelling (house, bungalow, flat, maisonette, mobile home or houseboat) whether it is owner-occupied or rented.

Who pays the Council Tax?

How much will I have to pay?

Your council tax bill will be based on the relative value (see council tax bands) of your dwelling compared to others in the local area. There is a discount scheme where only one adult lives in a dwelling. The bill may also be reduced where people with disabilities live in a dwelling, and people on low income may be entitled to a reduction under our council tax support scheme.

Details of how the Council decides the level of council tax and how that money is spent can be found on our Efficiencies: How we give you value for money web page.

Protecting the tax base

Brentwood Borough Council is committed to keeping the council tax we charge as low as possible. Protecting our tax base will help us to do so by making sure that any support, discount or exemption we award is compliant with the law and local policies.

Register for Ebilling

Sign up for Ebilling to receive your Council Tax bill directly by email.

How do I Pay?

Details of how to pay your council tax can be found on our How to Pay web page.

Compliance Team

We have team of dedicated compliance officers who are determined to detect and stamp out any non compliance and where appropriate issue penalties to residents who do not tell us about changes that affect the amount of council tax they are liable to pay.

Further information on non compliance and how to report fraud can be found on our Report Fraud web page.

How we do it

We use a number of tools to help us identify non compliance, including the use of data checking software to ensure discounts and exemptions are awarded appropriately.

Penalties

If we find out that a change in circumstance has occurred and we have not been notified of this change within 21 days of it occurring, we will impose a penalty of £70. A second failure to notify a change may lead to a further penalty of £280 being imposed.

The penalty notice will be issued as part of a revised council tax demand and a new bill displaying the penalty will be issued. The bill will serve as your formal notice of the penalty.