I swear, England is trying to nickel and dime me to death. First, the TV licence, and now the council tax. Council tax is a property tax that is levied on your property, and the amount of tax is determined by which borough you live in and the value of your property. Strangely enough, it's not the landlord that's usually responsible for paying the tax, but the tenant renting the property.
Lucky for me, I live in Westminster, which has some of the highest taxes around, and I got a notice from the taxman that they're coming to my flat to see how much tax they think I ought to pay. So I've been sitting at my flat this morning, playing hooky from work, and the taxman (lady, it turns out) has just arrived to see what the flat's worth.
At the moment, she's roaming around our flat with a special tool that takes all the measurements of the different rooms, and she's already asked me twice as to how many bedrooms the property has. Because our flat is new built, it's not currently in any tax band, and hence, the reason for the assessment. If you refuse to the in-person assessment, they estimate your tax band based on surrounding properties that are about the same size.
I had a difficult time determining whether I ought to just go with the estimate, but ultimately, I decided to have the assessment done since I know the tax band of our neighbor (who has the same floorplan as me) is in the second to highest band. What have I got to lose?
Anyway, she's just informed that our flat is rather large - this doesn't sound too good. I'm supposed to sit tight while she informs Westminster council about our tax assessment and then we get our first council tax bill. Definitely not a London moment to cherish and remember. Sigh.
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