Dormant Council Tax Accounts
Case reference FOI2019/00053
Published 27 February 2019
Request
I am aware that when someone moves away from your council area having paid some council tax beyond the date which they are moving away, they sometimes leave their council tax account in credit.
1) I want to know, how many closed or dormant council tax accounts do you have in credit and how much money is in these accounts in total?
2) Could you tell me the process for applying to get one's money from one of these accounts? Is it automatically refunded?
Response
1. We have 11,304 closed Council Tax accounts with a credit balance. The total credit balance for these accounts is £971,856.27.
Note: These figures cover all the years from when the Council Tax was introduced in 1993 up to January 2019. During this period the debt raised for collection is in excess of £1.6 billion. There are in excess of 50,000 properties per year being charged in the Guildford Borough Council area.
Within these figures there are 1,153 accounts with a credit of less than £1.
Some credits are held (and therefore are only a temporary credit) where a property is being re-banded (ie the old band is removed and the account is in credit until the new band is set, at which point the credit off-sets the new charge).
2. If the account was paid by direct debit the refund will be automatic.
If the account was paid by other methods then a refund claim form is sent.
Note: The majority of Council Tax accounts are paid by direct debit and therefore automatically receive a refund.
Documents
This is Guildford Council's response to a freedom of information (FOI) or environmental information regulations (EIR) request.
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