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Hundreds of thousands of people are paying the wrong city tax, and that means thousands could be repaid, Martin Lewis said.
The good news is, the money-saving expert just explained exactly how to check if you can pay less.
“You could be owed thousands of pounds in many different ways,” he told viewers of ITV’s Martin Lewis Money Show.
And you can make the overpaid tax retroactive to 1993 by seeing significant amounts of cash returned to you.
In fact, he found seven different ways that people could pay less.
This is what he said you should check.
1. Check your municipal tax band
(Image: PA)
Here’s the problem: with 400,000 homes in the wrong municipal tax band.
If you’re in the wrong band and paying too much city tax, you can also go back to 1993.
Martin pointed to a viewer who claimed £ 3,300 as a result.
And it is also easy to check.
“I came up with this system in 2007 … it has two controls,” Martin said.
The first thing to do is check what your neighbors are paying by going to the Valuation Office Agency (VOA) in England or the Scottish Advisers Association (SAA) in Scotland.
If you are paying more than your neighbors, you are in step two.
(Image: Getty Images / iStockphoto)
This is where you must calculate the value of your home in 1991.
The good news is that there are many free tools online that allow you to do this, for example, this one from Nationwide.
Once you know it, you can see which band you should have included yourself in.
But Martin also has a caveat.
“It only applies if both checks show that you are in too high a band,” he said.
That’s because if you mess up and it’s your neighbors who are in the wrong band, they could see your bills go up, while yours stays the same.
Which will not make you the most popular.
2. Discounts for lower occupancy
“If you are a single adult living alone, you should get a 25% city tax discount,” Martin said.
But he added that it is not necessary to live alone to claim this.
It’s about adults qualifying, so students, caregivers, children, and others can be excluded from the city tax.
In fact, in some cases everyone who lives in a house can be excluded, which means that no tax is owed.
Statements about this can also be cackdateable.
3. Discounts for applicants for benefits
There are discounts of up to 100% for individuals on certain benefits.
But these are not applied automatically when you claim the benefit; You must do this directly with your local council (details of your council are at www.gov.uk/apply-council-tax-reduction).
The reduction is in addition to any universal benefits or credits you receive, but the amount of the reduction depends on your advice and the circumstances; for example, where you live, your income, whether children live with you, whether other adults live with you.
Some city councils allow you to update the reduction, but it is up to the individual council so you need to check.
Council tax breaks for severe mental disabilities
If you, or someone you live with, has a disability, a health problem, or is a caregiver, you could be overpaying in city tax without even knowing it.
There is a 25% discount if you live with someone with a severe mental disability and no other adults, or only with adults who are also not counted for municipal tax purposes or a 100% discount, if you have a severe mental disability and live alone.
The best news is that the claims are overdue, which means you could recover large amounts.
One viewer recovered £ 700 for his father and claimed another £ 2,100 for his mother.
“To get it back, contact your local council,” Martin said.
5. Help for coronavirus
Some also help people who have lost income as a result of the coronavirus.
The Local Government Association advised residents to check their council’s website to see who qualifies for a tax exemption.
Everything is thanks to a support fund made available by the Treasury, intended to help people of working age who receive fiscal support from the city council. Your city tax could be reduced by 150 pounds a year.
Those who already pay less than £ 150 a year will pay no city tax at all.
6. Have you adapted your home?
If you have made changes to your home for a disabled resident, you could also get a cash refund.
But instead of a discount, you may be able to lower your municipal tax band.
7. Are they sitting on their cash
Many people pay the city tax a month or a year in advance, and that means that if you move house, they keep it until you ask.
So if you’ve moved in the past few years, look for municipal tax refunds on your old council’s site.
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