Council Tax

[flip-flop]

Somebody recently told me that if you are serving in the armed forces and sent abroad for six months you will not get a rebate on your council tax, but if you are in prison you will.

Sounds a bit far-fetched - can anybody confirm whether this is true or not please?

[Kathian]

I'm not sure of the six month tour one, but I do know that if you are in the Army and sent to Canada, you pay a charge in lieu of Council Tax. Seems prisoners get away with everything!

[Le Chat]

Yes flip-flop it is true on both counts!

[Lonnie]

As Le Chat says, its totally true. disgusting isn't it.

[Dolly1308]

OK anyone got any ideas on how to rectify this anomaly?
There a lot of clever people on here who must have some ideas .
What about setting the ball rolling with petitioning your local M.P.?

[flip-flop]

No way - really? That is an absolute ******* disgrace.

[flip-flop]

Dolly - it is very easy to rectifiy it: members of the armed forces who are sent abroad receive a refund. If prisoners receive a rebate then they've already got a system in place to administer it.

[Supernick]

I may be wrong, but isn't this currently under debate at the moment by the government? Was there not legislation rushed through last year that gave a tax-free bonus of more than �2,000 for completing a six-month operational tour? The impression that I got was that it was a quick fix, and covered the cost of council tax without having to go through the lengthy beaurocracy involved in getting the law changed. Doing it this way meant that they could support the soldiers financially whilst the measures were debated. Are there any servicemen who know far more than me about the issue?

[Supernick]

I might add, that I completely agree that if you're serving your country abroad then you should not be subject to c. tax.

[Lonnie]

Just to add to supernicks answer,

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml =/news/2006/10/11/npay11.xml

[gina32]

i know that if you are in prison you do not pay council tax at all, its disgusting