Enforcement of council tax
Case reference FOI2022/01469
Published 1 November 2022
Request
Upon inspection of the Local Government Finance Act 1992 and various other legislation, I cannot find within any subsections any legal standing, obliging me to pay council tax, even if the council does deem me to be liable. I can only assume council tax is a request, however, I'm open to being corrected, after being shown by you, specifically what exactly obliges me to take liability. For clarity, I am not a corporation. Sometimes legislation can be misinterpreted. I want to know exactly what information is being used by this council to take the stance it does. Under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 provide the following;
1. Legislation(s) you can & may use, to create an obligation for any man/woman to pay
2. Subsequent sections you can & may use, to create an obligation for any man/woman to pay
Response
1. Legislation(s) you can & may use, to create an obligation for any man/woman to pay
Section 6 Local Government Finance Act (1992)
Person liable to pay council tax:
(1) The person who is liable to pay council tax in respect of any chargeable dwelling and any day is the person who falls within the first paragraph of subsection (2) below to apply, taking paragraph (a) of that subsection first, paragraph (b) next, and so on.
(2) A person falls within this subsection in relation to any chargeable dwelling and any day if, on that day -
(a) he is a resident of the dwelling and has a freehold interest in the whole or any part of it
(b) he is such a resident and has a leasehold interest in the whole or any part of the dwelling which is not inferior to another such interest held by another such resident;
(c) he is both a resident and a statutory of the whole or any part of the dwelling;
(d) he is such a resident and has a contractual licence to occupy the whole or any part of the dwelling
(e) he is such a resident; or
(f) he is the owner of the dwelling
2. Subsequent sections you can & may use, to create an obligation for any man/woman to pay
Liability to pay council tax is per section 6 of the Local Government Finance Act 1992, as set out above.
Documents
This is Herefordshire Council's response to a freedom of information (FOI) or environmental information regulations (EIR) request.
You can browse our other responses or make a new FOI request.